Re: Collection of personal info

[David Neal <dneal@usis.com>]

On Wed, 6 Sep 1995, Timothy C. May wrote:

> At 10:15 PM 9/6/95, Rob Lowry wrote:
> 
> >Beyond having the willies.. This is more than just scary, it feels like
> >rape when you think about it for awhile. Everything you buy, on credit, is
> >recorded and sold to someone who wants to know your secrets. Everytime
> >you make a banking transaction, someone is watching and compiling the
> >data.
> >
> 
> If someone doesn't want their postings going into my 220 megabyte file of
> postings, they shouldn't send them to me. Or they should adopt a digital
> pseudonym, unlinkable to their True Name or any other nyms they may have.
> 
> Things are much simpler and less stressful when you don't look to the law
> to fix things.
> 

Nor was I suggesting a legal solution (I know your comment
was triggered by Rob's request for legal recourse) but instead
suggesting that things are farther along than some people realize.

Someone suggested a rational, non-hysterical approach to
converting people.  Perhaps.  I certainly wrote a nice letter
to the editor of a magazine which published a piece about
electronic checking, and made sure to mention that e-cash
would be preferable to some.  

On the other hand, The Gub'mint is certainly conducting a
campaign overt and covert to throttle unlimited and uncontrolled
use of cryptography.  That combined with how politicized
things are these days, it can be difficult to conduct a rational
debate or in fact find anyone who wants to talk. 

Personally, I'm of the opinion that we need to a pre-emptive
crypto strike.  But just as the 'Privacy Card' has been debated
here endlessly, so too reaching critical market mass w/a 
'bump in the cord' product.



David Neal <dneal@usis.com> - GNU Planet Aerospace 1-800-PLN-8-GNU
Unix, Sybase and Networking consultant. "...you have a personal responsibility 
to be pro-active in the defense of your own civil liberties." - S. McCandlish