Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!apple!usc!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!decwrl!bacchus.pa.dec.com!shlump.nac.dec.com!jareth.enet.dec.com!edp From: edp@jareth.enet.dec.com (Eric Postpischil (Always mount a scratch monkey.)) Newsgroups: comp.org.eff.talk Subject: Re: Lotus Marketplace Keywords: CD-Rom consumer database,privacy Message-ID: <17478@shlump.nac.dec.com> Date: 20 Nov 90 13:42:39 GMT References: <1990Nov18.224340.3041@agate.berkeley.edu> <48514@cornell.UUCP> <4960@rsiatl.UUCP> Sender: newsdaemon@shlump.nac.dec.com Reply-To: edp@jareth.enet.dec.com (Eric Postpischil (Always mount a scratch monkey.)) Organization: Digital Equipment Corporation Lines: 27 In article <1990Nov18.224340.3041@agate.berkeley.edu>, larry@belch.Berkeley.EDU (Larry Foard) writes: >It would make much more sense if companys providing this type of information >where held liable for any damages resulting from failing to correct misleading >information. That doesn't solve all the problems. For example, what happens when somebody asks the database for a list of single women over the age of 65 with accumulated wealth in a particular neighborhood? The information on the CD can be used for burglaries, fraud, and rapes, yet the company has provided accurate information and is not liable under libel laws. Note that this sort of thing has happened; in California, information from the motor vehicle administration was used to plan rapes and thefts. In addition, there are control and power issues. A government that uses this information can become extremely powerful -- able to regulate people's lives in excrutiating detail and able to track, control, and suppress dissenters. How can we have a free society when critics of the government must fear retribution for their speech? I see an ethical problem here. On the surface, there would seem to be nothing wrong with supplying freely-collected information. But the way human beings use that information will ultimately lead to abuses. How do we deal with that? -- edp