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From: lee@wang.com (Lee Story)
Newsgroups: comp.society
Subject: Re: Lotus MarketPlace and Consumer Privacy
Message-ID: <1617@limbo.Intuitive.Com>
Date: 10 Jan 91 11:19:51 GMT
Sender: taylor@limbo.Intuitive.Com
Organization: Wang Labs, Lowell MA, USA
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.

This is indeed fascinating.  Four issues and one non-issue occur to me,
to wit:

(1) Isn't Lotus skimming on thin legal ice if they presume to determine
what businesses are "legitimate"?  Perhaps those that don't compete too
directly with Lotus, or some such objective ;-] criterion?  Isn't there
a law against this sort of "restraint of trade"?  (Can they legally
refuse to sell me their lists?)

(2) In what specific sense is it unethical to redistribute the names and
addresses of people in a particular geographical area, with a particular
form of employment, or by similar selection criteria.  Just because I don't
like it (I don't, and I complained in writing to Lotus) doesn't mean that
there's anything contrary to the presumed "social contract" about it.

(3) I know a delightful fellow who runs Dartmouth's "Second College Grant"
in northern New Hampshire.  His family effectively has their own 5-digit
(!!) zipcode.  My own one-family house has an explicit nine-digit zipcode.
Thus if their statistical (salary, etc.) breakdowns are by zipcode, some
folks will apparently have their personal data revealed directly.  Is this
the case?

(4) Shouldn't we be more concerned with upholding the Bill of Rights (esp.
the right to publish in electronic form) than with some rather fuzzily
bounded right to privacy?  (EFF is of course concerned with this, but I'm
surprised that their leadership hasn't issued a specific statement on the
Lotus issue.)

And the non-issue:

(1) I've heard rumors that Lotus has given up the household "Marketplace"
idea because of the many complaints received.  Is this true?

Lee Story