Computer Privacy Digest Tue, 16 Nov 93 Volume 3 : Issue: 075
Today's Topics: Moderator: Dennis G. Rears
Re: Citizens Getting Credit Reports on Businesses
Re: Finding someone -- FOUND!
US Privacy Council Seminar
Re: Is there an effective way to stop junk phone calls?
No thumb print - no check
Computer Bulletin Boards should NOT be censored.
Re: California Driver License and SSN
The Computer Privacy Digest is a forum for discussion on the
effect of technology on privacy. The digest is moderated and
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Back issues are available via anonymous ftp on ftp.pica.army.mil
[129.139.160.133].
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Date: Mon, 15 Nov 1993 17:49:32 -0500 (EST)
From: "Tansin A. Darcos & Company" <0005066432@mcimail.com>
Subject: Re: Citizens Getting Credit Reports on Businesses
From: Paul Robinson <TDARCOS@MCIMAIL.COM>
Organization: Tansin A. Darcos & Company, Silver Spring, MD USA
-----
>
> There's been extensive discussions about obtaining credit reports
> on private citizens (you need to be extending credit, considering
> employment etc), and about businesses vetting each other (e.g.
> D&B). However, there's another case to consider.
>
> Are there any easy ways for private citizens to obtain credit
> reports on businesses with whom they are considering doing
> business? E.g., when I went to Borneo, I paid the tour company a
> few thousand $$$ a few months in advance. I'd have liked to check
> them out first. Also, would it be legal for me to obtain personal
> credit reports on the company's officers?
You can, if the company is large enough, check the printed records that
Dun & Bradstreet put out. D&B generally also sells reports on companies;
normally you have to subscribe, but I think they have a 1-900 number for
getting reports; call your local office and find out how much it will cost
for a report on a company. I'm sure that if someone wants to pay for a
single report they will provide it.
And getting a credit report on some people in Borneo from a U.S. Credit
Reporting Service might be a little hard to do. However, since you are
concerned about prepaying a deposit, you might want to check; this might
fall into the "legitimate business reason" needed to obtain a personal
credit report.
---
Note: All mail is read/responded every day. If a message is sent to this
account, and you expect a reply, if one is not received within 24 hours,
resend your message; some systems do not send mail to MCI Mail correctly.
Paul Robinson - TDARCOS@MCIMAIL.COM
Voted "Largest Polluter of the (IETF) list" by Randy Bush <randy@psg.com>
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From: Carl Oppedahl <oppedahl@panix.com>
Subject: Re: Finding someone -- FOUND!
Date: 15 Nov 1993 19:38:10 -0500
Organization: PANIX Public Access Internet and Unix, NYC
In <comp-privacy3.74.11@pica.army.mil> Rajiv A Manglani <rajiv@athena.mit.edu> writes:
>Just wanted to thank everyone on this group who gave me suggestions...
>I have found the person that I was looking for.
So are you going to tell us the good news -- what approach worked?
--
Carl Oppedahl AA2KW (patent lawyer)
1992 Commerce Street #309
Yorktown Heights, NY 10598-4412
voice 212-777-1330
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Organization: CPSR Washington Office
From: Dave Banisar <banisar@washofc.cpsr.org>
Date: Mon, 15 Nov 1993 17:30:13 EST
Subject: US Privacy Council Seminar
US Privacy Council Seminar 11/22
***********************************************************
[please post]
US Privacy Council Brown Bag Lunch Seminar Series
"International Perspectives on Privacy"
Simon Davies
Privacy International, UK
Prof. Greg Tucker
Monash University, Australia
(invited)
CPSR Washington Office
Monday, November 22, 1993
12:00 - 2:00 pm
Simon Davies is Director General of Privacy International, an
international human rights group involved in privacy, surveillance and data
protection issues around the world. Mr. Davies has led campaigns against
national identity cards in Australia, New Zealand, and Thailand. He is also
the author of "Big Brother," a best selling book on privacy in Australia. He
will speak about health care and privacy, national identity cards and government
surveillance issues in the UK.
Mr. Tucker is a professor in the Syme Business School at Monash
University in Victoria, Australia. He is currently conducting research on
telecommunications privacy in Australia, Japan, Europe and the US. He was
previously a consultant to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and
Development and completed a detailed report for the OECD on international
privacy issues.
Following the presentations, there will be an update on US privacy issues
including recent developments with the Fair Credit Report Act, the health
care reform proposal, the data protection bill, and the Clipper
Chip/Operation Root Canal.
CPSR Washington Office
666 Pennsylvania Ave., SE
Suite 303
Washington, DC
202/544-9240
(one block from the Eastern Market metro)
In cooperation with Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility.
For more information on the US Privacy Council, please contact Evan
Hendricks at 202-829-3660.
[if you would like to be notified of future USPC
Seminars, please send a note with e-mail address to
banisar@washofc.cpsr.org]
***********************************************************
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From: pete ritter <cpritter@netcom.com>
Subject: Re: Is there an effective way to stop junk phone calls?
Organization: Brotherly Order of Odd Bellows (BOOB)
Date: Tue, 16 Nov 1993 03:12:28 GMT
In article <comp-privacy3.73.4@pica.army.mil> amyh@tc.fluke.COM (Amy Heidner) writes:
>From: "Daniel P. B. Smith" <dpbsmith@world.std.com> writes:
>
>> Anybody know anything that WORKS?
At long last, federal law now requires telemarketers to remove from their
call lists, anyone who requests it. The law also requires them to give
the name of the telemarketing firm, its address and telephone number if
you request it.
The next time I get a telemarketing call, I will ask for both. I will
check out the info I am given. If the info does not check out,
the telemarketer has violated federal law, and I will demand the that the
FBI and the federal prosecuter pursue prosecution.
I have not received a telemarketing call in oh, it must be 9 months to a year.
I attribute this to the fact that when I do receive a call, I am extremely rude
the caller, using words and phrases that I would use with only my best
friends and then only in jest. After I began doing this about 5 years ago,
the rate of junk calls dropped steadily. Prior to that, nothing worked.
Not courteously requesting no more calls, not telling them that I won't
do buisiness with their clients, not hanging up on them, not asking them
to hold and then ignoring them, not writing to the Direct Marketing
Association. I had considered buying an answering machine. But why
should I have to spend money to protect something that I should have a
right to anyway?
I urge everyone who gets junk calls to ask to be removed from their lists
and to ask for their firm's name, address and TN. Then check out that
information and if it does not check out, or if you receive a second call
from a firm you have asked not to call, demand that the feds pursue the
criminals. Be sure to document all calls, requests for information and
results of checking that information.
pax,
pete
--
***************************************
* Pete Ritter * cpritter@netcom.com *
***************************************
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From: Tom Evert <O1EVERT@vm1.cc.uakron.edu>
Subject: No thumb print - no check
Organization: The University of Akron
Date: Tue, 16 Nov 1993 06:24:31 GMT
An article appeared in last Sundays Cleveland Plain Dealer titled "Fretter
drops thumb printing". This electronics/appliance discount store dropped
their thunb printing policy only after North Randall councilman Shelton
Richardson appeared at the store with 14 others ready to picket.
"Fretters practice of requiring thumb prints drew criticism from privacy
experts who said the use of the prints in unusual in retail operations,
where customer relations are critical.
And the matter was more unusal because, according to a top company official,
Fretter used the procedure only at its North Randall store.
North Randall is a predominatly black Cleveland suburb."
Seems that North Randal police could no longer afford the $60 for handwriting
analysis to procecute a single bad-check case they had been providing free
to merchants.
Aside from the invasion of privacy of the 'victem' how much money is did
this store hope to save by changing their policy?
How much does it cost to have a computer run a thumb match?
How much did this blunder cost the chain in lost sales?
Anyway - at least it's somewhat of a victory for us privacy advocates!
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From: Lyle Lexier <lexier@sfu.ca>
Subject: Computer Bulletin Boards should NOT be censored.
Organization: Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, B.C., Canada
Date: Tue, 16 Nov 1993 06:30:52 GMT
Computer Bulletin Boards should not be censored. People should have freedom
of speech in saying or writing what they want to say, even if the material has
to do with sexual or racial matters.
Do you agree with this statement? I will keep your names confidential, but
I will poll X - yes, and Y - no and the reason why YES or NO was chosen.
send your responses to lexier@sfu.ca
--
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Lyle Lexier | Simon Fraser University |
| lexier@sfu.ca | Major in Computing Science (4th year) |
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Date: Mon, 15 Nov 93 22:54 PST
From: John Higdon <john@zygot.ati.com>
Organization: Green Hills and Cows
Subject: Re: California Driver License and SSN
Bob Goudreau <goudreau@dg-rtp.dg.com> writes:
> Actually, most highway systems in the US *are* primarily supported
> by "user fees" (in the form of federal and state fuel taxes), *not*
> by income taxes. There are even some exemptions from those taxes
> available for non-road fuel uses, such as heating oil or for fuel
> that the user guarantees will only be used in farm equipment.
I'll take that one even further. In many areas of the country (right
here in California, for example) the gasoline taxes (paid only by
motorists) traditionally ear-marked for roads have been raided for all
manner of other "worthwhile" purposes, leaving the road funds depleted.
This has caused highway projects to sit unfinished due to lack of
money because the money that the MOTORISTS paid has been squandered on
dead-end transit projects, pseudo-scientific environmental crap, and
the like. Then the counties are forced to impose new taxes just to
replace the money that should have been there in the first place to
complete the road projects.
And to add insult to injury many roads are now being fitted with
"bicycle lanes" which make the roads more hazardous for the motorist by
narrowing the available space for lanes. Bicyclists, as a group, pay
absolutely nothing for this special treatment and space on the roads.
But bicycle riders are now a trendy, politically correct,
evironmentally-friendly faction to which the polititians feel obligated
to pander.
The only way to get around in California is via automobile. Yet the
motorist is treated with the utmost contempt. He is mugged,
fingerprinted, taxed, and his privacy is forfeited. California vehicle
registration fees are unbelivably high. State and federal taxes take
more out of the price of a gallon of gas than gas used to cost
altogether when I learned to drive. Every agency known to man, public
and private, has free and unrestricted access to all DMV records,
usually via direct computer link. The state's smog inspection program
is a formula for rip-off and there are plans on the table to make it
even worse. And the junkers that cause 90+% of the pollution are
exempt!
The only thing more offensive than a self-righteous non-smoker is an
equally self-righteous non-driver.
--
John Higdon | P.O. Box 7648 | +1 408 264 4115 | FAX:
john@ati.com | San Jose, CA 95150 | 10288 0 700 FOR-A-MOO | +1 408 264 4407
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End of Computer Privacy Digest V3 #075
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