Re: Collection of personal info

[tcmay@got.net (Timothy C. May)]

At 11:37 PM 9/6/95, Rob Lowry wrote:
>> Rob, I have entered this posting of yours into the "BlackNet Dossier
>> Service" I operate.
>
>At least you notified me.. :) Something the TRW crew or others like them
>do not do.

If you mean that TRW Credit does not inform you every time a transaction is
entered into their files, this is true. Be grateful they don't.

If you mean the existence of the record itself has not been reported to
you, it has hardly been a secret. It has been very well-known for many
years that these records exist, and you can subscribe to a service that
reports to you regularly about your credit record. (No, it is not "free,"
but why should it be? It costs them money to send this stuff to you, and
they see it as a valid business market, as do I. At least the cost is
fairly nominal.)

Again, you are free to use cash, to use a bank card which protects your
privacy, and so forth.

...
>This is true.. I could adopt a nym, such as I use on my BBS, or when I am
>doing other stuff on the net.. but it is difficult at best to get a new
>set of credit cards, ID and so on with a new name/alias and still
>maintain your own name. If it were possible to have an alias in real
>life, as easy as it is to get one on the 'net that is, then I would most
>certainly do so..

I was not saying such nums are easy to use in the real world (though
friends of mine have VISA cards in fictitious names, and the cards are
fully functional, and are not just "second names" on their main card).

What I am saying is that we should be very careful not to lobby for laws
which will make the surveillance state _more_ invasive, and more insinuated
into every aspect of our lives.

Be concerned about the dossier society, just don't look to "the government"
to protect you. Not only will they continue to keep their own dossiers (*),
they'll use such "Data Privacy" laws to invade the privacy of others.

(* I've got a long section in my Cyphernomicon on the ties between the Big
Three of credit reporting agencies, the FinCEN and similar folks, the
intelligence agnencies, and Witness Protection folks who give out those
wonderful new identities. You think the Big Three don't know immediately
who the 50,000+ people in Witness Protection (aka Witness Security) are?
This may sound like something from the "Vince Foster and Danny Casolaro
conspiracy tapes," but it has some direct links to Cypherpunks issues: the
Feds have the power now to create new identities, falsify past financial
records, and run the scams that these methods imply...and the Big Three are
all headquartered within a few miles of the relevant agencies, in Vienna,
Langley, MacLean, Tyson's Corner, Herndon, Chantilly, Reston, and suchlike
spook haunts in No. Virginia.)

--Tim May

---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:----
Timothy C. May              | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money,
tcmay@got.net  408-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero
Corralitos, CA              | knowledge, reputations, information markets,
Higher Power: 2^756839      | black markets, collapse of governments.
"National borders are just speed bumps on the information superhighway."