How Peter Thiel-Linked Dialog Club Keeps Members Secret

Dialog, privacy network created by Peter Thielgrades present at his events on a subtle level, ranking them with wealth and fame, tracking their relationships, and using algorithms to help decide who they should meet, who they should be with, and who they shouldn’t, WIRED has learned.

The document is part of an insider’s report obtained by WIRED from a confidential source, which contains information about about 200 celebrities scheduled to attend the group’s annual meeting this summer. The group’s information includes home addresses, phone numbers and email accounts, birthdays, photos, and emergency contacts, as well as food allergies and political views that other members have volunteered.

The documents are separate from the list of people who are associated with Dialog that was left on the organization’s website and has been circulating on the Internet since the beginning of this week – a loose book that seems to include non-members, such as the governor of Maryland Wes Moore, a former speaker, and other foreign visitors who passed through Dialog’s path, sometimes years ago.

Founded in 2006 by Thiel and data broker Auren Hoffman, Dialog is a private club that brings together politicians, investors, businessmen, military leaders, administrators, academics, and journalists for an invitation-only, unregistered meeting. According to a previously shared Dialog document, it has “more than 1,000 paying members,” and more than 2,500 people have attended its annual meetings.

The document, which describes Dialog as an “invitation-only community,” distinguishes two things: membership and return. The former allows members — the group calls them “communicators” — to access dinners “held in members’ homes and private locations around the world,” as well as “member-led international tours,” concierge meetings, group chats, and more. Retreats invite groups of 200 or more people — who are not actually members — for three- to four-day retreats. For example, this August, members, speakers, and guests are planning to gather outside Dublin, Ireland, for two days of discussions on strategic intelligence, geopolitics, and modern warfare – from the future of NATO and military capabilities to the war on Iran – led by current and former policymakers, diplomats, and national security officials.

(Disclosure: Former WIRED editor-in-chief Nick Thompson—now CEO of The Atlantic—is among the people on the public list and unpublished articles. He declined to say whether he is a member of Dialog.)

Dialog assigns grades to people before they enter. Of the 192 dossiers reviewed by WIRED, 130 were identified as members. The rest are expectations with files labeled as “First Time Dialoger” or “Warm.” Everyone—members and prospective invitees—is given a grade of A, B, or C. The “C” grade seems to be reserved for the famous and the famous; only one of the seven received it. The majority—141 out of 192—received a “B.” The final grade, “A,” is mostly seen by older, established members who view grades as irrelevant.

The actor Josh Brolin – who, according to the records, has never been a part of the return trip to Dialog – is chosen as a VIP mainly based on the strength of his popularity: “His appearance as Thanos in the Avengers series and his participation in the richest films such as Avengers: Endgame, which earned more than $ 2.79 billion, wrote his profile on Instagram,” after more than 3.4 million.

Economist Tyler Cowen, by contrast, was denied a “C” for VIP after the group’s AI tool described him as “well-known in his field” but not the head of “an organization that is a household name for ordinary people.” (Dialog staff defeated the AI ​​tool, which was used to collect the records of at least 26 people who were included in the group’s list.)

Brolin did not respond to WIRED’s request for comment. One of his representatives said The Hollywood Reporter she wants him to “know what he’s made of himself.” Cowen did not respond to a request for comment.