Re: Philosophy of information ownership

["E. ALLEN SMITH" <EALLENSMITH@ocelot.Rutgers.EDU>]

From:	IN%"bruce@aracnet.com"  "Bruce Baugh" 28-MAY-1996 18:50:34.36

>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.

	Quite. A related problem is when the government generates some
information attached to you - the most obvious case being a social security
number. Should a private company (e.g., a credit bureau) be allowed to make
use of such? On the one hand, it would definitely limit companies not to be
able to... on the other hand, you were coerced into having that information
attached to you. One option is to have multiple possible SSNs for each person,
but that gets into the problem of the credit bureaus, etcetera, may not deal
with people who use a new SSN. It's their choice... but they're only able to
make that choice because of governmental interference.
	-Allen