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From: johne@hp-vcd.HP.COM (John Eaton)
Newsgroups: comp.org.eff.talk
Subject: Re: The end of privacy... and so what comes next?
Message-ID: <6750017@hp-vcd.HP.COM>
Date: 1 Apr 91 21:11:51 GMT
References: <63473@bbn.BBN.COM>
Organization: Hewlett Packard, Vancouver, WA
Lines: 32

<<<
<   1) privacy is just a cloak for illegal activity  [i.e., trading
------
Yea, and the fifth amendment only serves to protect the guilty. Lets
get rid of that while we are at it.

< 2) A non-private world could be VERY convenient: just call Domino's,
< the person answers the phone, and without my having said anything says
< "Hi Mr. Cosell, just the usual tonight?". 
----------
Or if some punks break into you house and steal your checkbook they can
call your bank and find out how much money you have in it.


< 3) Most of the data we bitch about is, and has always been, 'public'
< anyway.  Again, going back to the caller-id debate, to be sure in the
----------
It may have been available to the public but no one had the computing
resources available to collect and analyze the information. Today you
can combine databases from different sources and learn a great deal
about someone from their buying habits. You can also make mistakes 
which is why anyone who keeps data must be responsible for keeping
their data accurate. That is really hard to do if the subject has 
no idea that such records even exist.

Suppose your name makes it on a mailing list of "Sex Perverts who
spend more than $2,000 a year on porno mags". You suddenly start
getting a mailbox full of offers and you have no idea of where this
list is, how your name got there or how you can get it removed.

John Eaton
!hp-vcd!johne