Re: Philosophy of information ownership

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

At 2:37 AM 5/29/96, Alan Olsen wrote:
>At 12:38 PM 5/28/96 -0700, Bruce Baugh wrote:
>
>>A separate problem arises when the government compels the disclosure of
>>information for one purpose - getting a driver's license, say - and then
>>turns around and sells it to others. It's much harder to either negotiate a
>>new contract or go to a competitor when the other party is a government.
>
>This is a problem in Oregon.  The database of drivers licences and
>registered automobiles is sold openly by the state.  (You can also order a
>copy on CD-ROM from a company based in Oregon as well...)  As far as I know,
>there is no way to opt out of having your name sold to marketing firms.
>These records are routinely purchaced by mail order houses for resale to
>clients all over the country.  The cost is pretty minimal (under $200) and
>you have to provide the media (usually two 9-track tapes).  The database
>includes current address, vehicle licence number and the type of car that
>you own (among other things).

As I said, I favor "data privacy laws" when they deal with government use
of mandatory data (but not in the case of illegalizing the mere
"remembering" of data obtained non-coercively).

The problem has been made worse by "revenue enhancement" policies by
various govenmental agencies. Local and regional governments have
discovered they can make a few extra bucks by selling data bases they
acquired through government power.

Here in California there are restrictions on DL records, following the use
of DL records to allow a guy to track down an actress, Rebecca Shaefer, and
then kill her.

(But this doesn't stop such abuses. A couple of years ago I obtained the
NLETS (National Law Enforcement Telecommunications System) printout for the
extremely reclusive and unseen-since-1957 author Thomas Pynchon. He lived a
few miles from me, in Aptos, on an old logging road.)

The problem of government records being "open to the public" of course is a
two-edged sword. We want government to not operate in secret on the one
hand, but we are naturally horrified when it is possible to go to the right
office of government and look at lists of all the women who received
abortions in county hospitals.

I place no faith in government to protect my privacy.

--Tim May

Boycott "Big Brother Inside" software!
We got computers, we're tapping phone lines, we know that that ain't allowed.
---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:----
Timothy C. May              | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money,
tcmay@got.net  408-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero
W.A.S.T.E.: Corralitos, CA  | knowledge, reputations, information markets,
Licensed Ontologist         | black markets, collapse of governments.
"National borders aren't even speed bumps on the information superhighway."