Re: SOCIETY: crypto impact

[Peter Breton <pbreton@cs.umb.edu>]

> On a related note, it is amazing how much information about you
> exists.  Did anyone else watch a PBS documentary about this (sorry, I
> can't remember the name of it)?  In the report, a writer researched
> how direct mail marketing departments seek out infomation - from going
> to the county court house and obtaining property and deed information,
> to using census information to classify your living habits,
> professional organizations you belong to, catalogs for mailing lists
> of various interests, etc.  Some supermarkets were even testing a
> system in which your purchases (scanned by the bar code reader) are
> saved and indexed by your credit card or check!  Banks could then sell
> this extremely valuable information to direct mail houses.

  Check out the books "Privacy for Sale" and "The Naked Consumer" for
thorough treatments of this topic. Or read the *.privacy groups for a
while....

		Peter