Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!swrinde!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!zephyr.ens.tek.com!tektronix!reed!intelhf!ichips!iwarp.intel.com!gargoyle!learn From: learn@gargoyle.uchicago.edu (William Vajk ) Newsgroups: comp.org.eff.talk Subject: Re: Lifestyle Information ( was Re: Safeway Stores to Accept Charge Cards) Message-ID: <1452@gargoyle.uchicago.edu> Date: 11 Apr 91 23:04:15 GMT References: <9418@rsiatl.Dixie.Com> <6750019@hp-vcd.HP.COM> Organization: Dares No Organization Like Dis Organization Lines: 38 In article Bill Seurer writes: >Excerpts from netnews.comp.org.eff.talk: 10-Apr-91 Re: Lifestyle >Information (.. John Eaton@hp-vcd.HP.COM (386) >> An ice cream store sold the list of kids that signed up for its birthday >> club to the Selective Service. If you were listed as 18 years old and had >> not registered then they sent you a reminder. >How are we EVER going to convince society that such collections are >wrong if the only examples we can point out are where lawbreakers were >caught?! The data collected (in this case, purchased) was about law abiding citizens, minding their own business, exercising their rights. What you are implying is that some of the group about whom data was collected MIGHT at some future date become a violater. There is no legality to the government's action in purchasing the list. There isn't even a vague justification for it. There are surveillance laws AGAINST the government arbitrarily collecting information about citizens exercising their civil rights. How about extending this thoughtto all sorts of activities. Let's have anyone purchasing a blank videotape registered. They MIGHT record some copyrighted TV show. Good heavens, they MIGHT dupe a copyrighted movie. And we shouldn't speak out against such registrations, because they're designed to catch persons performing criminal acts. Do you think we can't convince society that registration of videotape purchasers is a generally bad idea ? But just to set your law_abiding mind at rest. What happens to the names on the list of children who die between their free ice cream birthdays and age 18 when the Selective Service, in their infinite wisdom, sends out their reminders ? How many of the parents will have wounds unnecessarily reopened opened by this illegal intrusion ? Bill Vajk