Re: Pynchon as roadkill on the digital superhighway

[mcb@net.bio.net (Michael C. Berch)]

Tim May writes:
> [...]
> It seems that in the early morning hours of January 28, 1990, someone
> accessed the Department of Motor Vehicles computer files and got a
> printout of the elusive man's home address, personal characteristics,
> etc. A copy of this was forwarded to someone who studies Pynchon, and
> thence to me, for reasons I won't go into right now.
> 
> The implications for Cypherpunks, privacy, and Pynchon as roadkill on
> the digital highway are clear.

Just looked at the date on this again, and realized it is not as
surprising as it sounds -- until 1991 CA DMV records were open to
anyone who made a request.  No need to break in and look at secret
files, all you had to do was go to the DMV and request them. 

This was changed, I believe, mostly as a response to a case involving
a TV actress in LA who was stalked by an obsessed fan, who got her
address from the DMV and eventually ambushed her there and murdered her. 

And as cool an author as Pynchon is, I suspect he is an amateur at the
privacy business; anyone who would put their true residence address on
their driver's license is obviously not paranoid enough to be serious
about not being found.

(Don't know if it has been mentioned here, but Simson Garfinkle has an
article in this month's WIRED titled "Nobody Fucks With the DMV",
about the privacy implications of the amassing of personal data by
state DMVs.  It's a good -- and scary -- read.)

--
Michael C. Berch
mcb@net.bio.net / mcb@postmodern.com / mcb@remarque.berkeley.edu