Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!mips!spool.mu.edu!uunet!brunix!doorknob!rsw From: rsw@cs.brown.EDU (Bob Weiner) Newsgroups: comp.org.eff.talk Subject: Re: Those (henious) Information Brokers; who are they? Summary: Give us some context! Message-ID: Date: 27 Apr 91 12:29:32 GMT References: <8683@crash.cts.com> <1991Apr21.151853.11183@com50.c2s.mn.org> <8741@crash.cts.com> <930@ssc.UUCP> Sender: news@brunix.UUCP Organization: Brown U. Lines: 48 In-reply-to: markz@ssc.UUCP's message of 23 Apr 91 18:27:27 GMT > In article <8741@crash.cts.com>, lairdb@crash.cts.com (Laird Broadfield) writes: > > To make it *completely* clear: I'm interested in those organizations whose > > *sole and/or primary business* is the collection and sale of "personal" > > information, especially those whose datasets extend beyond mailing-list > > data, into lifestyle, health, financial, etc. > Please, please, for those of us who are trying to comprehend the mental tidbits so freely exchanged on this group, it would help immensely if you explained what you are talking about whenever you decide to talk about it. (Maybe some people should read USENET etiquette rules.) Although, I`m just using this one article as an example, I've seen this same behavior in over twenty articles recently. And I use a thread or topic-based newsreader, yet I still can't follow this stuff and I imagine others are in the same boat. > The article in the Wall Street Journal mentioned in this newsgroup > is a good place to start. (March 14 ? (1991) ). Give a short detail of what the article concerned. Which posting referred to it, etc. > > Also a good browse of business magazines is interesting. In a > recent mag (Forbes or Business Week) was an article on AVDO Systems, the > direct mailer which is going to branch out into the privacy invasion > business. > What, specifically, do you mean when you say they are going to branch out into the privacy invasion business. Some of us actually want to know. > (On that note, if anyone wants to see what Len Rose looks like, there Who is Len Rose? > was a picture of him with an article on the Secret Service crackdown, Crackdown of what? > three weeks ago in Business Week.) Filling in such details really doesn't take that long. People do it all the time in other newsgroups. Bob -- Bob Weiner rsw@cs.brown.edu