From: blamb@rodan.hri.com (Bill Lambert)
Newsgroups: ne.general
Subject: Re: Privacy and POS (Re: Speaking of ATMs)
Date: 11 Sep 92 16:03:38 GMT
Reply-To: blamb@rodan.hri.com (Bill Lambert)
Distribution: ne
Organization: Horizon Research


=> In article <1992Sep10.181710.21969@osf.org>, kenny@osf.org 
=> (Kenneth Crudup) writes:
=> >Now, thanks to technology, the NSA as well as the National Direct Marketing
=> >Board knows I buy a lot of frozen dinners, pink grapefruit juice,
and Heineken
=> >Dark beer.
=> 
=> [...here I expressed my apathetic opinion on the situation...]
=> 
=> In article <1992Sep10.201331.2126@mips2.ma30.bull.com>
=> mgelman@cyclades.ma30.bull.com (Michael A. Gelman) writes:
=> >The problem is: Do your shopping habits belong to you?  (More
=> >precisely, does information about your shopping habits belong to you?)
=> 
=> >Those people who have strong (some might say "overwhelming") feelings
=> >regarding personal privacy often think that it does infringe.

In article <1992Sep10.214748.26806@osf.org>, kenny@osf.org 
(Kenneth Crudup) writes:
=> I still don't understand what the harm is. What can they do with such
useless
=> information? It's not something relevant like how much money I've got in my
=> bank/investment accounts, for example.

I happen to be one those people who harbor strong feelings about privacy
issues, and especially this one. I have two major concerns. I also
appreciate the fact that not everybody may share those concerns, but
I have them nonetheless.

	1) My own privacy - I am a person who likes to control my
	own time and energy. I don't want unsolicited telephone
	calls, direct mailings, and the like. After recently buying
	a home, we have been inundated with solicitations for home
	insurance, alarm systems, lawn care, vacation and time/share
	stuff, home equity loans, credit cards, heating oil sales,
	carpentry and home repair services, etc. The volume of this
	has been astounding, to say the least.... perhaps 15-20
	phone calls from insurance agents, and perhaps double that
	amount by mail, including 3 in one day from 3 different
	people in the same insurance company. Personally, I am
	angered by the intrusions into my family life, and feel -
	to quote Taj Mahal, "Ain't nobody's business but my own...."

Now, puchase of a home is matter of public record. The transaction is
entered into legal notices so that persons who may have some claim to
ownership or lien against the property have notice of the transaction.
From that simple basis, somehow it become conventional business practice
to use that public information in the manner and force as described above.
The access to other buying habits and economic data will only serve to
increase these forms of predatory marketing practices and increase
everybody's burden of dealing with them. And yes.... all that junk
mail isn't helping the ecology either (small point).

	2) Discrimination - Having not a lot of confidence in the 
	morality of business, I wish to keep walls up against the
	misuse of private information related to personal buying
	habits infiltrating areas such as employment, housing,
	insurance rates, and the like. For some examples: say
	a person buys certain magazines oriented toward blacks, or
	personal hygiene products designed for black people. A
	personnel agent at a company where that person is seeking
	employment has access to that information, and without
	ever seeing that person or asking the question, makes the
	determination that that person is a black person, and
	decides not to call that person for an interview based on
	that information. Or it could be Kosher products. Or
	cigarette papers.... or hard liquor, or a magazine dealing
	with gay issues, or information about medications.... you
	name it. You might get higher auto insurance rates because
	you read magazines about high performance cars, or buy more
	alcohol than some acceptable and nebulous standards. And so
	it goes....

Now, for strange reasons, it has become acceptable to let any information
become public and available, and place the burden on the consumer or
general public to take action to prevent the possible unapproved use
of his private information by taking specific actions in conjunction
with the institutions having that information. This is rediculous given
the widespead usage of that information and the devious ways in which
it is gathered and used without our knowledge. After we know someone has
our private information and is already using it in ways that we don't
want, then we "are allowed" to ask them to desist. Meanwhile, who knows
how far and wide that information has spread, and in what other forms
it has evolved that we have no control over. And, as shown above, sometimes
it can be used without our even knowing it, so the avenues provided would
potentially be avenues of no recourse. 

There must be legislation and common convention to change this point of
view, and place the burden on those desiring to use that information to
get the permission of the consumer for both the content and usage of that
information.

Privacy is freedom. It's basic to our way of life, and our assurance to
keep it that way.

- Bill Lambert