About Private Pierce

Private Pierce is the personal site of Andrew S. Pierce. It explains privacy and other complicated systems, including business and banking, travel and points, and AI and search, so that readers can make choices that fit their own lives.

Andrew S. Pierce — Privacy Educator, Professional Organizer

“Organizer” names two things: Andrew's role of record on many business filings, and the way he approaches complicated systems, making the choices understandable and the steps usable.

My approach

I enjoy making something confusing understandable. It is the thread that connects subjects that can look far apart: privacy, business structures, travel, points, AI, and search.

My work protecting clients' privacy also made me publicly visible. Seeing how easily information could connect a professional role to a private life changed the questions I wanted to explain. What becomes public? Who can obtain it? Which changes help, and what do they cost?

Studying philosophy and mathematics showed me how little I know. I used to think I was right, and I was forced, again and again, to revise my thinking. A convincing argument can rest on an assumption you missed, and an opposing view can expose a weakness in your own. I still try to understand how a system works before I decide what to make of it.

The aim here is useful judgment. A privacy measure, a points strategy, or an AI workflow should earn the effort it takes. I will explain a starting point, the tradeoffs, and why you might choose differently. If my reasoning changes, the explanation should change with it.

Fitting the approach to the person

Privacy does not ask the same choices of everyone. A good approach has to fit your work, your relationships, and the effort you can keep up.

There is an old story about Procrustes, who forced travelers to fit his bed. Advice can do something similar when it demands that every life fit one model.

I would rather start with the person and work out what is worth changing. Sometimes the right choice is to keep what you have.

I can explain how the system works. What you want from it is your decision.

Where to start

More about Andrew

His background, the companies he founded and what his role on business filings means: Andrew S. Pierce

How the pages are made readable by people and by programs: How Private Pierce Makes Sources AI-Citable and Canonical Source Readiness by Artifact.

Methods, sources and corrections

Methodology: how pages are researched and kept current
Source registry: the sources used and how they are grouped
Dataset catalog: machine-readable copies of the data
Corrections: how to report an error, and the dated log of corrections made
Feed: new pages, newest first, readable in any feed reader without an account or an email address
Disclosure: what the site is and is not, how it is made, and the companies Andrew founded