Re: Safeway + Your Privacy

[Julietta <albright@scf.usc.edu>]

> 
> C'punks,
> 
> On Fri, 15 Apr 1994 killbarny@aol.com wrote:
> 
> > Safeway food stores has this neat little glitch in their shopping database
> > that is just ripe for abuse and litigation. When you pay by check, your
> > information is recorded and stored in their computers, so the next time you
> > go in there and try to get out your ID [for your check], they say "Don't
> > bother, we have that information."

And Sandy Sandfort responded:
> 
> And what, pray tell, would be your cause of action?  Why don't you just 
> pay cash if you are so bothered?

The thing is- yes of course, one coulpd pay cash to avoid Safeway- and in
fact, perhaps that is one must do. However, it seems to me that we a re
touching on alarger issue here- and that is the fact that these practices
amount to societal surveillance techniques which are being employed with
greater and greater frequency. One has to get a bit nervous, it would seem-
when it becomes easier and easier for the powers that be to track your
every move- including the videos you have rented, the people you have
spoken with or correspaonded with, the books and magazines you have read,
etc. This may not be of concern to the average citizen who is content with
going to work and going home and watching TV every night- but for those who
don't buy into or are actively hostile towards the dominant hegemonic
ideology of this country- surveillance may in fact become a real concern.
Computers make such surviellance, as we have seen, more and more feasible
on a grander scale- both in terms of the amount of information it is
possible to obtian about a person, and in terms of the amount of people
which can easily be watched.
	I am not suggesting a grand conspiricy, although I think that
computer technology could potentially inadvertently give great power to a
centralized government. I suppose that is why it is so important not to
merely say "Hey- pay cash"- but rather to think about the further
implications of surveillance via computer in our society.
Ciao for now,


Julie

__________________________________________________________________________
Julie M. Albright
Ph.D Student
Department of Sociology
University of Southern California
albright@usc.edu