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From: taylor@hplabsc.UUCP (Dave Taylor)
Newsgroups: mod.comp-soc
Subject: Re: Book Review: The Rise of the Computer State
Message-ID: <889@hplabsc.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 20-Nov-86 14:17:54 EST
Article-I.D.: hplabsc.889
Posted: Thu Nov 20 14:17:54 1986
Date-Received: Fri, 21-Nov-86 02:50:52 EST
Reply-To: mandel@well.UUCP (Tom Mandel)
Organization: Hewlett-Packard Laboratories
Lines: 27
Approved: taylor@hplabs
Reference: <875@hplabsc.UUCP>


This article is from well!mandel (Tom Mandel)
 and was received on  Thu Nov 20 02:55:54 1986
 
Nicely written review of _The Rise of the Computer State_, Dave.  My
main comment is not so much about the thesis of the book, which is
hard to refute and is probably accurate, but rather about the remarkable
lack of concern *most* of the population has regarding what one might
term "information privacy."
	Certainly, there are many individuals and several concerned
interest groups worried about the increasing incursions on privacy due
to computers, sophisticated telecommunications, and increasingly
ubiquitous and interconnected databases, both commercial and government.
This has been an issue that has long been discussed in this and more
traditional media.  But what continues to be noteworthy, as far as I'm
concerned, is that this is apparently *not* a pressing issue for most of
the public.  Often it is only when a particular abuse occurs -- for
instance, an erroneous credit report on a person -- that that person
gets upset about the invasion of privacy.
	In general, rather than being concerned about new kinds of
invasion of privacy, most citizens seem rather complacent about this
development.  I would like to ask others in this modgroup why they think
this complacency exists.

	Tom Mandel

	ARPA:  mandel@sri-kl.arpa
	UUCP:  {ptsfa,hplabs,lll-crg,hoptoad,apple}!well!mandel