soreff (02/26/83)
I suggest that the capitalism/socialism debate is getting stale and that introducing a new topic might be desirable at this point. I suggest that the impact of assorted things (technology, political changes, demographics, etc.) on privacy might be a good topic. I think that there are a variety of distinct types of privacy and that they are subject to different threats. The privacy of one's political views, for instance, are not invariably compromised when the IRS starts to intrude into the details of one's finances. One's educational and medical records also present (partially) separate issues. I have read comments to the effect that maintaining financial privacy is almost hopeless, because of the records one must produce for tax purposes. Do you think that this is true, false, or an oversimplification? Do you think that the other forms are privacy are as threatened, less threatened, or more threatened? -Jeffrey Soreff (hplabs!hplabsb!soreff) P.S. mail (even flames) welcome
porges (03/03/83)
#R:hplabsb:-139700:inmet:7800001:000:537 inmet!porges Feb 28 13:31:00 1983 Privacy? OK, here's something to worry about: some book stores around here (Cambridge MA) have cash registers that record exactly what books you bought, for return purposes. If you pay with a credit card, this means that somebody somewhere might be able to figure out what you read. If you buy, say, several anti-nuke books over a year, maybe you could (in a paranoid world) get put on some list of people who bear watching. I'd worry... -- Don Porges ...harpo!inmet!porges ...hplabs!sri-unix!cca!ima!inmet!porges
johnl (03/03/83)
#R:hplabsb:-139700:ima:18900004:000:526 ima!johnl Mar 1 18:32:00 1983 Oh, don't worry about those bookstore cash registers that record your name, rank, serial number and reading tastes. They're hooked into a Series/1 and they'll never get any useful info out of one of THOSE. Snidely, John Levine ima!johnl PS: Don't forget that every time you buy somwthing at a Radio Shack, they try very hard to get your name and address, and they really do put those names onto their mailing lists. One or two more visits and I won't have to buy wood for my stove any more -- I'll just use old catalogs.