Big Mother can't protect our privacy

[tcmay@netcom.com (Timothy C. May)]

Alan Wexelblat writes:

> Hunh.  Doug, I'm sorry to oppose you on this, but I think that the sort of
> bullshit pry-into-your-personal-life stuff that companies are resorting to
> these days is *exactly* the sort of stuff that cypherpunks would want
> stopped!
> 
> Have you ever had to take one of these tests?  Have you seen the questions
> they ask?  I have been handed a test (in an all-too-recent interview) and
> after looking at the test I told them flat-out I would not take the test and
> if they hired people based on it then I wouldn't work at their company.
> 
> [The questions have to do with all kinds of shit like "Have you ever had a
> homosexual experience?" and "Have you ever shoplifted anything?" and "How
> do you feel about XXX?".  Totally unrelated to my job skills.]

Simple solution: If you don't want to take the MMPI test (*), don't
work for that company. 

(* MMPI is the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Index test, which
sounds like the test described here. It has a couple of thousand of
these questions. Without defending the analytical powers of this test,
let me say that the intent is psychological, not political. The
famoous questions about believing in God, having homosexual
experiences, washing one's hands, and so on, are devised by shrinks,
not designed to ferret out atheists and homos. The MMPI has been in
wide use since the 1950s, though it's use is declining as people file
lawsuits over it.)

> It's a total load of crap and should be illegal.  I, for one, am glad the
> gov't is telling its contractors NOT to do that.
> 
> Sorry this is so strident, but I see cryptography and privacy-enhancement as
> technological branches of the same tree as this stuff.  Appropriate data in
> appropriate places, and nothing more.

I can understand Alan's stridency, but if for whatever reason I ask a
potential employee to take a test--call it Tim's Multiphasic
Personality Index, the TMPI--does he really want me thrown in jail?

That's what saying that this "should be illegal" generally implies.

Most Cypherpunks I know would rather just demonstrate their competency
and tell the potential employer to screw themselves. Not surprisingly,
most employers will then get the message and drop such tests.

(The MMPI, designed in the conformist 50s and only occasionally
updated since, is a pretty crummy test of talent or ambition, in my
unprofessional opinion. A girlfriend who was an MFCC (Marriage,
Family, and Child Counselor, a shrink) agree it was flawed.)

All I'm saying is that interfering with my practices or with those of
others, to make certain things illegal, is not what most Cypherpunks
are after. 

Sorry if this is political, but Cypherpunks should not be looking for
laws and regulations to protect someone's idea of privacy.

In Britain, in case there are some of you out there who haven't heard
about this, they got concerned about corporations compiling records on
people. Sounds like a valid concern, right? Well, the result was the
Data Privacy Act (or somesuch), which outlaws such records unless the
compiler notifies _all_ of the targets _and the government_.

The result is that anyone who saves computer files--like this list,
which of course contains e-mail addresses of hundreds of people--is
technically in violation of the law. Companies are finding it tough to
go about their business. And so on.

Cypherpunks protect their own privacy, they don't depend on Big Mother
to do it for them.

--Tim

-- 
..........................................................................
Timothy C. May         | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money,  
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