Path: utzoo!censor!geac!torsqnt!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!sdd.hp.com!usc!apple!agate!shelby!neon!Neon!jmc From: jmc@Gang-of-Four.stanford.edu (John McCarthy) Newsgroups: comp.org.eff.talk Subject: Lotus Market Place Message-ID: Date: 20 Nov 90 23:01:20 GMT Sender: news@Neon.Stanford.EDU (USENET News System) Distribution: comp.org.eff.talk Organization: /u/jmc/.organization Lines: 24 It seems to me that there is a certain amount of superstition in the belief that very many people are likely to be harmed by databases with information about their commercial transactions. It's a bit like beliefs that a spell can be cast by someone who gets your fingernail clippings. Doubtless examples can be concocted, but the examples I know about are ones where the information is used to do something already illegal. I think the Swedish and Norwegian laws on the subject have been harmful and are subject to further abuse, especially if adopted here. Suppose we assign the task of preventing illegal database entries to the Secret Service. You can expect search warrants and subpoenas of your files checking to see if you might have someone's phone number without proper consent. Besides the possibility that the Secret Service would go mad again, you are providing an opportunity for all kinds of busybodies. Any restrictions on the use of databases will have to be written extremely carefully. Any proposals for this should be accompanied by impact statements in which the proposers anticipate what possible harm might result from their proposals and others attack the impact statements as inadequate. Let me suggest that the people who have already posted restriction proposals on this newsgroup post impact statements for them.