.....IN THIS DIGEST.....
// -- NEW DISCUSSION -- //
"Privacy "See-Mail"
"What's YOUR Privacy Hot Button?" ~ Mike Banks Valentine
// -- CONTINUING DISCUSSION -- //
"P3P Confusing" ~ Bob Chambers
"Privacy for the Poor" ~ Nancy Ryan
// -- PRIVACY NEWS -- //
"The Latest in Privacy Issues"
----------------------------------------------------------------------
// -- PRIVACY "SEE MAIL" -- //
Each week I am driven by the latest privacy offense by some
web company to comment on a particular issue. This week it was
done for me by another list I subscribe to called "Mike's List"
published by Mike Elgan. I'm a fan of technology, including the
odd stuff. And it turns out that the odd stuff is what "Mike's
List" is all about every issue and it's subtitle is "The Silly
Con Valley Report".
This is one newsletter I KNOW I'll always be reading as long
as he continues to produce it. Oddball technology and high tech
humor always bring a few good laughs with "Mike's List". I'll
give you an excerpt of Elgan's privacy invasion below and send
you to his site to finish reading. Basically what it comes down
to is that he was spammed by Handspring after attempting to purchase
a new TREO PDA. He provides a link to a CNET News.com story for
further reading and details, but his is rather valid point that
there needs to be some oversight provided to stop such abuses,
whether that is via software or management. http://news.com.com/2100-1040-946624.html
for the big scoop. Elgan tells it from his perspective below.
"I received an e-mail from customer_care@handspring.com
saying the company had found a defect in some of the displays
and that my order would be delayed for two or three weeks. Then
I got three failed e-mail attempts to "recall" the message --
which, of course, you can't do via POP3 e-mail. And finally --
the crowning achievement -- I received a message that was identical
to the first in every respect, except for the addition of two
Excel document e-mail attachments. The first attachment was called
treo90_270_orders_exported.xls, and contained the order numbers,
first and last names of 215 customers -- including Yours Truly
-- as well as our phone numbers and e-mail addresses. The second
attachment was named treo90_270_orders_pending_exported.xls and
contained all the same information for 40 more people."
The rest of the story can be seen at Elgan's Web Site. http://www.mikeslist.com/
WHAT'S YOUR PRIVACY HOT BUTTON?
What is your PRIVACY HOT BUTTON? We may have each been observing
the abuses and being appalled at the sloppiness of those "see-mails"
like that discussed above and the very well known case of the
Eli Lilly company exposing the names of a slew of Prozac users
to public view. Yours truly was the victim of Identity theft due
to sloppy handling of information including my social security
number.
What has happened to your or your colleagues, company or loved
ones?
~ Your Moderator
// -- CONTINUING DISCUSSION -- //
===> TOPIC: P3P CONFUSING
Note: I had asked Bob Chambers offline about P3P editors and
I'm sure his comments will be of interest to the rest of the list.
The P3P editor will be fairly mandatory for non-techy folks like
yours truly. I haven't got a clue about how the XML stuff works
so I'll be relying on the software to write that for me.
~ Your Moderator
From: Bob Chambers
Here is a link to an article regarding P3P editors:
http://www.w3.org/P3P/usep3p.html
The article has a link to an IBM alpha P3P editor. IBM's Tivoli
division also has an editor at http://www.tivoli.com/products/index/secureway_privacy_mgr/
Among the editors listed, P3PEdit seems to be the best choice.
The more I look into this the more it seems as though P3P is
not yet ready for prime time. Supposedly IE 6.0 has P3P support,
but if you search for P3P on the Microsoft web site there are
no relevant articles.
Thanks.
E-Commerce Manager http://unitrindirect.com
===> TOPIC: PRIVACY FOR THE POOR
From: Nancy Ryan
Terri Robinson said:
>> Most mom and pop stores accept ATM cards (in Phoenix,
anyway), and they are surely not the best place to do grocery
shopping pricewise! <<
In many poor inner cities, there is no large grocery store,
and mom-pop shops are the only place to go. Many people (most?)
on public assistance don't have bank accounts.
I think we have to remember that most of the people who will
be using EBT (Electronic Benefits Transfer, replacement for welfare
checks and foodstamps) will not be able to respond in this forum
because most of them don't have a computer and are not online.
Those of us who have computers and can pay for our monthly internet
access should realize our privileged place on the planet. Sure,
all of us have probably been broke, but there is a big difference
between broke and poor.
I do agree, however, that in a society that stigmatizes the
use of public benefits, it will be a good thing when one doesn't
have to whip out the food stamps while standing in line at the
store.
// -- PRIVACY NEWS -- //
Moderator note: There are two ways to access previously listed
privacy news stories. One is to visit Privacynotes archives, the
other (simpler) way is to visit
http://privacynotes.com/privacy_news.html
where I also keep a privacy news archive.
With the private information that employers often hold, such
as Social Security numbers and birth dates, criminals who steal
that data can do almost anything: obtain credit cards and cell
phones, or even open a bank account. So far, prosecuting those
who steal personal data hasn't appeared to deter continuing criminal
activity. It's been reported that there are some 750,000 cases
of identity theft each year in the United States. One has to wonder
what it will take to make strong security for stored employee
information a common, expected part of business and governmental
agency discussions at the highest levels of management.
http://www.informationweek.com/story/IWK20020725S0004
Racial Privacy Initiative. Asking citizens to check a "race"
box on a school or government form forces Americans to pay attention
to immutable and meaningless characteristics like skin color and
ancestry. People otherwise disinclined to do so ought not be compelled
by government to put themselves into a racial category. This argument,
which at first blush looks like the logical extension of the campaign
against racial preferences, will appeal to many voters. The initiative,
submitted with 980,000 signatures, has already qualified to be
on the March 2004 NY ballot. Yet, despite its superficial appeal,
race-blindness is an ideal at war with itself: Strict adherence
to this principle would impede its own enforcement and inhibit
addressing the harmful effects of its own past violation.
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/07/28/opinion/28LOUR.html
THE Internet has reminded Camberley Crick that there are disadvantages
to having a distinctive name. In June, Ms. Crick, 24, who works
part time as a computer tutor, went to a Manhattan apartment to
help a 40-something man learn Windows XP. After their session,
the man pulled out a half-inch stack of printouts of Web pages
he said he had found by typing Ms. Crick's name into Google, the
popular search engine. "You've been a busy bee," she says he joked.
Among the things he had found were her family Web site, a computer
game she had designed for a freshman college class, a program
from a concert she had performed in and a short story she wrote
in elementary school called "Timmy the Turtle." "He seemed to
know an awful lot about me," Ms. Crick said, including the names
of her siblings. "In the back of my mind, I was thinking I should
leave soon."
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/07/25/technology/circuits/25GOOG.html
