"address verification databases"? (was: Netscape download...)

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

At 9:45 PM 7/17/96, Jeff Weinstein wrote:

>  Because we have not yet been able to obtain the address verification
>databases that we need for Canada.  There is someone working on
>tracking this down right now.  When we get the proper database we
>will add access to canada.
>
>        --Jeff

Jeff, can you tell us anything more about what these "address verification
databases" are?

For example, are they derived from government sources? Census data? (Naw,
can't be, for at least two obvious reasons). Voting records? (Naw.) Credit
card purchases? (??)

While I can imagine various commercial firms have indicators that a "T.
Christopher May" once lived in Rio Del Mar (the name of a town I lived in,
though not an official "Postal Service" address), I really find it odd
that, for example, there would be any database that could "parse" the
informal information people provide (absent a well-defined set of addresses
and precise spellings).

In case I'm not making myself clear, there are no "official" addresses of
persons in the U.S! Not even the tax system requires registration of all
persons and specific addresses. This has come up in several "voter's
rights" cases, where persons with no fixed address were nevertheless able
to vote. If I, T.C. May, say my address is Moonbeam Trailer Park, who's to
say it's not? Maybe it's where I'm staying with a girlfriend, maybe it's
where I get my mail, maybe it's my spiritual home. And yet just which
"address verification database" could possibly confirm that I live in (or
get my mail at the Moonbeam Trailer Park at this exact moment? Absent any
laws clearly defining what one's official name is, official phone number
is, official zip code is, official address is, etc., just about anything we
choose to put down on the Web form is kosher.

At least the MIT system was based on ISP domain names, crude as this is,
and not on putative names and residential or business addresses.

Anyway, I don't know if Netscape is rejecting the information I'm providing
them, as I've been unable to get through in roughly 30 connect attempts.

But I'm still curious about what these "address verification databases."
Sounds ominous to me.

--Tim May

Boycott "Big Brother Inside" software!
We got computers, we're tapping phone lines, we know that that ain't allowed.
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