The Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas is accused of collecting its customer’s details using suspect means at best. While there is no definitive law to classify this act as illegal or not, it follows a very shady pattern of dubious business practices relating to customer data by the casino. The whistle-blower is a Silicon Valley technology and privacy expert who reveals that these practices dated back a decade ago.
Privacy expert accuses Hard Rock Hotel and Casino Resort in Las Vegas of obtaining customer data in a less than legal manner
Tech expert blows the whistle on Hard Rock business practices
Mary Hodder reflected on her time in 2008 and 2009 during an interview where Hard Rock in Las Vegas was her client. Working for a company called Apisphere, she was mandated to covertly harvest Hard Rock customers’ mobile phone data for marketing purposes.
“They wanted to put wands in the ceiling to collect the IMEI [identification] numbers of every phone that went by,” explained Hodder, “map everywhere they went in the casino or on the property, and map them in the hallways up to their rooms.”
Despite the brazing allegations, the casino’s representatives have remained mum on the matter, further fuelling the validity of the claims. This latest indictment of Hard Rock Hotel and Casino unearthed previous scandals relating to breaches of customer information.
A Reoccurring Pattern of Customer Data Breach
In 2016, Hard Rock received complaints regarding fraudulent activity on customers’ cards. Following an investigation, discoveries concluded that there was unauthorized access to the card-processing network, which later revealed malware on the systems.
These series of events do not seem to have an end in sight as a similar data breach that impacted payment cards was discovered in 2015. With laws governing these regulations varying from state to state, there is no telling of what could happen next. Consequently, there is no evidence to suppose that we’ve heard the last of customer data breaches at Hard Rock Vegas.
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