Hello Sean, On Wed, 20 Nov 2002 20:31:08 -0600 GMT (21/11/02, 09:31 +0700 GMT), Sean wrote:
TF>> No, you get privacy for the normal price (irrespective of the fact TF>> that we have determined that this matter has nothing to do with TF>> privacy). There is no extra fee for it. > The 'educational' line in the x-mailer header gives out information > about me that some people would otherwise not know. A special discount is given for those who are in the educational field *and* are not ashamed of it. If one of the two doesn't apply, why do you want to take advantage of a special discount that is only given when both conditions are met, i.e. does not apply to you? > As far as getting adequate privacy only for the "normal" price, would > you still feel comfortable about it if TB! offered a discounted price > for their software in exchange for letting them track your > web-browsing habits, such that the people with the least wealth would > be the most likely to succumb to such an invasion of privacy? That > example is clearly orders of magnitude more extreme than the > "educational" header issue, but the principle is the same. It is not > nice to extort people into giving up personal information. This has nothing to do with extortion. Your example is unrealistic with regards to TB, but there is software which you can download and you actually get money for running it: You allow the software to trace your browsing habits and send that to the company, then you get targeted ads, and in return they give you a (small) percentage of the money they get from the advertisers. This has nothing to do with extortion, it is your *choice* to do participate or not. Otherwise every kind of giving discounts or money (commissions, salaries, wages) is a kind of extortion, as something is always expected in return from the beneficiary. You expect to pay less, what are you giving in return? Why do you think you have some kind of *right* to just get a discount price? Rit's alternative would have to be to discontinue student discounts, so you don't need to feel singled out. It is your choice to shut this door for people who do not mind singling themselves out by applying for this student discount. How much is your percieved privacy issue worth to you? Not even the 5 or 10 dollars you would have to pay more for a "personal" version. Maybe it's a lot of money for you. So you can still use TB, namely the "educational" version. If Rit didn't offer this particular discount in their unbounded generosity, you would have to pay the full price. -- Cheers, Thomas. Moderator der deutschen The Bat! Beginner Liste. We have enough youth, how about a fountain of Smart? Message reply created with The Bat! 1.62/Beta7 under Chinese Windows 98 4.10 Build 2222 A using an AMD Athlon K7 1.2GHz, 128MB RAM ________________________________________________ Current version is 1.61 | "Using TBUDL" information: http://www.silverstones.com/thebat/TBUDLInfo.html
