Date: Mon, 10 Aug 92 17:55:45 EST
Errors-To: Comp-privacy Error Handler <comp-privacy-request@PICA.ARMY.MIL>
From: Computer Privacy Digest Moderator <comp-privacy@PICA.ARMY.MIL>
To: Comp-privacy@PICA.ARMY.MIL
Subject: Computer Privacy Digest V1#071
Computer Privacy Digest Mon, 10 Aug 92 Volume 1 : Issue: 071
Today's Topics: Moderator: Dennis G. Rears
Information Age course at Georgetown
IRS: ssn for my kids ?
re: SSNs and Southern California
Re: Cellular phone scanners
Re: cellnet privacy?
Re: CC's and South Korea
The Computer Privacy Digest is a forum for discussion on the
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Date: Thu, 6 Aug 1992 15:31 MST
Subject: Information Age course at Georgetown
From: stapleton@misvax.mis.arizona.edu (Dr. Ross Alan Stapleton)
For those in the greater Washington DC area, I will be teaching a course in
Georgetown University's continuing education program, surveying issues
arising from our entry into the "Information Age." The course description
is below, and it runs for eight Thursday evenings. Contact the School of
Summer and Continuing Education at Georgetown for further information (and
forward this note to others if you like). Ross
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
ISSUES FOR THE INFORMATION AGE
This course will address issues of the "Information Age" for a
nontechnical audience, i.e., how computers and computer-based information
and systems are transforming the world around us.
What does it mean to say that "information about money is as valuable
as money itself?" Many companies do nothing more than broker information,
as an increasingly larger percentage of the U.S. economy. But where ought
the boundary between commercial profit and personal privacy be drawn?
Lotus Development Corp. cancelled its plans to market a database on
consumers in the face of protests from those it would have monitored, and
across the U.S. "caller ID" technology is facing severe scrutiny from all
sides.
In the wake of the failed Soviet coup, a U.S. communications company
took out a full-page ad to congratulate Soviet citizens who, "armed with
nothing more than information...saved the day." News of the Tiananmen
Square massacre came to us out of China by way of portable satellite dishes
and the fax machine.
Information systems are making life more efficient, but never before
has it been possible for a simple computer glitch to cause a billion dollars
worth of damage--twice in 1991 software bugs crippled large portions of the
U.S. telephone system, and a Cornell graduate student's program shut down
tens of thousands of networked computers in 1988.
The legal profession is scrambling to apply yesterday's laws to new
realities, and "artificial reality" has been used in court testimony, while
the FBI lobbies to make digital telephones easier to wiretap. What do we
have to fear from "hackers?" Does computer crime pay?
Readings will be provided, taken largely from the current press, to
serve as background and focus for discussion.
Dr. Ross Alan Stapleton is a science and technology analyst with
extensive experience studying computer and information technologies in the
former USSR and Eastern Europe.
8 sessions, Thursday evenings, 7:45 to 9:15 p.m., September 24 through
November 12, 1992.
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 6 Aug 92 17:15:52 MDT
From: Tom Wicklund <wicklund@intellistor.com>
Subject: IRS: ssn for my kids ?
[Moderator's Note: I think the tax reform act of 1986 requires it for
children over 2 years of age. ._dennis ]
As of a year or so ago you must have an SSN for all children over 1
year of age. Many hospitals will submit the SSN info to the proper
authorities for you when your child is born.
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 7 Aug 92 09:37:54 PDT
From: Phydeaux <reb@ingres.com>
Subject: re: SSNs and Southern California
Someone wrote:
>> The plot thickens. I was required to give my SSN to PURCHASE
>> (with cash) a television, and there was much wailing and gnashing
>> of teeth when I explained that, as a foreign national, I do not
Robert McMillan responded:
>>You wouldn't think it ritualistic if you knew anything about what
>happens on the other side of the counter. My father owned a retail
>music store for three years and got a tremendous number of bad checks.
...
>Stores where people routinely write
>checks for large amounts (Home Depot comes to mind here) frequently keep
>internally-generated lists of known rubber check writers. I expect that
But he was trying to purchase a television with *CASH*. Why anyone
should be required to give a SSN for a CASH purchase is beyond me.
Cash is "legal tender for all debts, public and private." A check is
merely a promise to pay, so naturally the stores want ID.
I think we should take up a collection to buy the sales clerks a clue.
reb
------------------------------
From: "Wm. L. Ranck" <ranck@joesbar.cc.vt.edu>
Subject: Re: Cellular phone scanners
Date: 7 Aug 92 19:14:51 GMT
willis@iris.rand.org (Willis H. Ware) writes:
: But do remember that Virginia makes it illegal to OWN, much less operate,
: a radar detector so such laws are possible -- at least until challenged in
: court.
:
This is no longer true. A fellow had his new radar detector seized a few
years back by Virginia police. It had never been unpacked from the box.
He fought it in court and won. Now you can *own* a radar detector in Va.
but not use it in your car.
--
*******************************************************************************
* Bill Ranck DoD #496 ranck@joesbar.cc.vt.edu *
*******************************************************************************
------------------------------
From: Graham Toal <gtoal@gem.stack.urc.tue.nl>
Subject: Re: cellnet privacy?
Date: 9 Aug 92 00:52:36 GMT
Reply-To: gtoal@stack.urc.tue.nl
Organization: MCGV Stack, Eindhoven University of Technology, the Netherlands
In article <comp-privacy1.67.4@pica.army.mil> keith.willis@almac.co.uk writes:
> I must make the effort to find out how the law stands on this
> over here...
No problems with the law over here regarding cellular transmissions.
The only laws we have are against listening to police or military.
G
------------------------------
From: Graham Toal <gtoal@gem.stack.urc.tue.nl>
Subject: Re: CC's and South Korea
Date: 9 Aug 92 01:05:15 GMT
Reply-To: gtoal@stack.urc.tue.nl
Organization: MCGV Stack, Eindhoven University of Technology, the Netherlands
In article <comp-privacy1.68.5@pica.army.mil> 72307.1502@compuserve.com (Gordon Meyer) writes:
:[this submission is being xposted to RISKS]
:
: "Governments Come Looking for Card Information"
: It has been six months since the South Korean government's order
: that {credit card} issuers surrender files detailing individual
: account information, and card companies are still smarting. The
: reason: The companies are uncertain whether they can prevent the
: government of any foreign country from taking similar action.
Damn, I've just been looking for a book I know I have, but I can't find it.
Anyway, it's a fairly well-known book by an ex-Mossad employee who includes
at the back of his book several Mossad organisational charts - including one
showing computer links to the credit card companies, including Amex.
I presume it isn't just the accounts of the nationals of a country that
a government can access if they have a line to or an operative in a major
credit card centre.
Graham
(If I find the book, I'll post the reference)
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End of Computer Privacy Digest V1 #071
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