Re: IRS vs. privacy

[mkj@world.std.com (Mahatma Kane-Jeeves)]

> *	[This blew my socks off] The IRS has subscription data
> 	for many national magazines.  Thus, if they know you're
> 	getting Time & Newsweek & Barron's and USNews but they
> 	see no tax return, they nab you.

That's a valuable data point.  Here's another, in a quote I saved
almost a decade ago from an article in COMPUTERWORLD, Sept. 1985:

"In an effort to identify people who fail to file tax returns, the
Internal Revenue Service is matching its files against available lists
of names and addresses of U.S. citizens who have purchased computers
for home use. The IRS continues to seek out sources for such
information. This information is matched against the IRS master file
of taxpayers to see if those who have not filed can be identified."

In another issue of COMPUTERWORLD around the same time (which
unfortunately I did not save), I recall an article about an IRS
computerized system which tracked all positive and negative stories
about the IRS in the media.  The article implied that the huge and
expensive system represented a cost-no-object assault on freedom of
the press.  Officials at the IRS, however, were quoted as saying that
the intent of the system was merely to evaluate and guide IRS public
relations efforts; an IRS spokesperson admitted that the system could
be used for intimidation, but said "...that's not our intention."

Also, the 4-11-94 issue of Forbes magazine features a good article
about the growing IRS practices of computer data-matching and
profiling of citizens.  It's the issue with the cover that says (in
big block print): "You Know Who You Are, and So Do We".