[ggm]

Traffic analysis but applied to leave, advancement and record keeping. Second order effects indicative of first order function.

If you can obtain the telephone directory and track it over time and it has job titles you can probably reconstruct the history of IBM, which party is in power, whatever, for the institution which publishes it. And what the role and career progression is for the longterm players. What does it tell you about the short term players? Maybe as much if they come and go. I bet you could identify McKinsey hires coming and going from top 10 institutions by their name as they are attached to the CEOs office and move between roles, if you can get the phone book.

[mhoad]

If you’re looking for a modern version of this:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Office_of_Personnel_Manageme...

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthem_medical_data_breach

I don’t know if it’s covered in there but these two incidents ended up exposing everyone inside the CIA if I remember the details correctly.

[ggm]

I found the fitbit geolocation thing (exercising with a fitbit in secret location camps, logging your reps to Facebook &c) a good example of "oops"

[euroderf]

I heard from coworkers about how in the 70s in New Jersey, headhunters would get ahold of a phone directory from some facility in Bell Labs and just go thru the entire directory.

But what if they weren't headhunters ? What if they were... Chinese operatives ?