Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!att!pacbell.com!decwrl!limbo!taylor
From: ables@mcc.com (King Ables)
Newsgroups: comp.society
Subject: Re: Lotus MarketPlace and Consumer Privacy
Message-ID: <1615@limbo.Intuitive.Com>
Date: 10 Jan 91 11:11:34 GMT
Sender: taylor@limbo.Intuitive.Com
Organization: MCC ACT Program, Austin, TX
Lines: 39
Approved: taylor@Limbo.Intuitive.Com

> Let me get this straight -- even though this info is a matter of public
> record you won't sell it to me so I can find long-lost high school
> friends, but you will sell it to junk mail houses so they can waste
> forests trying to sell me insurance.  All in the name of privacy.

You raise a good point about fairness, but on the other hand...

I don't want *you* being able to get it because how do I know *you*
will only look for your old high school buddies with it!?

> Why am I a greater threat to privacy than some corporation?

No, admittedly, I'm splitting hairs between what is LIKELY and what
is POSSIBLE.  Certainly on the whole you are no more or less of
a threat to my privacy than a big company... but think about what
a big company is going to do with this information.  We all know.
But what is a "regular person" going to do with it?  Who knows?

I can at least be *reasonably* sure that a company is only going
to bombard me with unwanted literature.  Not a pleasant thing to
contemplate, to be sure, but acceptable.  If Joe Average Public gets
his/her hands on it, who knows what he/she might use it for!?  One
can imagine all sorts of harassments.

If you want to argue that someone at that company could still misuse
the information, then you may.  It's simply less likely.  And anyway,
most big companies already subscribe to these lists, so if they're likely
to misuse it, they're already doing so.

> If you're going to help corporations can get it cheap, then you
> should help me too

I disagree.  I am somewhat comfortable thinking that a company, who
has an economic investment in such information, will use it to promote
themselves and sell their products.  I have very little indication
as to what use an individual might put this information.  *That's*
the part that I don't like.

King Ables