Much as I'd like to reply and continue the thread, I think we've lost the Mac plot and there's a lot of people getting spammed.
Plus, as a Brit in the US I've finally learnt not to talk about culture, government or religion :) Hen On Tue, 19 Nov 2002, Bill Rising wrote: > On 11/19/02 15:07, Henri Yandell wrote > > > > > > [snip...] > > > >Does the US have any privacy laws? The way that companies happily sell my > >information off to anyone makes me think not. > > I think that there is an unwritten law which is: > > You get what you can get away with. > > After all, the prez' dad won't have his iran-contra secrets revealed, > because his son has ignored the laws which say that such /public/ > information should be released. > > So... it seems that we are having accountability of the individual, down > to the amount of corn bought, combined with deniability of the > organization (govt., bizniz, whatever). > > As for Jerry's comment about the Nazis: the gathering of info doesn't > automatically precede the rise of Killer Fools. It could be far milder > than jackboots marching in the streets, and still be plenty bad. > > Imagine this: everybody dumps all their info into a big database. Some > erroneous information goes into the big database in the sky, and you come > under suspicion for terrorism. No amount of denial will work, of course, > because guilty people who are clever and devious also deny their guilt. > More likely, though is that insurance companies will find that you have a > slightly higher risk of cancer and raise your premiums (or heck, cancel > your insurance). Employers will find that your sentiments lie with the > unions and not with the owners, and you cannot find a job. You may think > that gov't has the data, but it'll be a short time until a CEO-prez > figures out that there is money to be made selling the data. > > Bill > > The next meeting of the Louisville Computer Society will be November 26 > For more information, see <http://www.aye.net/~lcs>. A calendar of > activities is at <http://www.calsnet.net/macusers>. > > The next meeting of the Louisville Computer Society will be November 26 For more information, see <http://www.aye.net/~lcs>. A calendar of activities is at <http://www.calsnet.net/macusers>.
