Date: Thu, 22 Dec 94 10:35:16 EST
Errors-To: Comp-privacy Error Handler <owner-comp-privacy@uwm.edu>
From: Computer Privacy Digest Moderator <comp-privacy@uwm.edu>
To: Comp-privacy@uwm.edu
Subject: Computer Privacy Digest V5#076
Computer Privacy Digest Thu, 22 Dec 94 Volume 5 : Issue: 076
Today's Topics: Moderator: Leonard P. Levine
Getting Access to PGP
California Privacy Rights Clearinghouse
Re: 3 Hits and you're Out? (SSN use)
Re: Government vs. Citizen
SSNs, Privacy and Catch 22
Followup to "No I'm not Newt"
A Question about the Moderator
Info on CPD, (unchanged since 11/28/94)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
From: "Prof. L. P. Levine" <levine@blatz.cs.uwm.edu>
Date: 18 Dec 1994 12:30:56 -0600 (CST)
Subject: Getting Access to PGP
Organization: University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
To get access to PGP and other cryptographic materials:
1) You must be a US or Canadian citizen currently residing in the US or
Canada, and connecting to our site from a US or Canadian site. This is
due to inane US export restrictions on cryptographic materials.
2) You must read the RSAREF license, file rsaref.license in the
/pub/Net_info/Tools/Crypto/RSA_RSAREF_RIPEM/ directory (PGP 2.5
contains RSAREF code, which has very specific licensing criteria), and
send the following, *VERBATIM*, to rsa-agree@eff.org:
---------- cut here ---------------
Yes, I acknowledge that I have read the RSAREF Program License Agreement,
version 2.0, March 16, 1994. I agree to be bound by its terms and
conditions in my use of RSAREF and/or any programs that use it.
---------- cut here ---------------
Do not include the "---------- cut here ---------------" portions.
After fullfilling these legal obligations you will be told the pathname
of the directory. Please note that this name changes very frequently,
so if you do not get the material quickly you will have to re-do your
agreement message. If you find that you cannot access this material
after this process has been completed, it is probably because your site
is not recognizably a US or Canadian site (e.g. *.org), in which case
you should contact eff@eff.org. Please do not reveal the temporary
directory name you will be given, as doing so may be a violation of US
and/or Canadian federal law, and may also violate RSA licensing
restrictions.
3) you may also try other sites. For PGP, try telnetting to
net-dist.mit.edu, login: getpgp
If you would like to see US export restrictions on cryptography
removed, please send a message supporting crypto export reform to your
Representatives & Senators. Congress contact information is available
from ftp.eff.org, /pub/EFF/Issues/Activism/govt_contact.list
------------------------------
From: B_GIVENS@USDCSV.ACUSD.EDU
Date: 21 Dec 1994 15:18:03 -0800 (PST)
Subject: California Privacy Rights Clearinghouse
The California Privacy Rights Clearinghouse maintains a public access
site for gopher use.
The command "gopher gopher.acusd.edu" can be used to access it.
Alternatively its www address is "gopher://gopher.acusd.edu".
Then go into "USD Campus Info Services" and you'll find the PRC there.
We have all fact sheets in English and Spanish, our press releases, an
upadate on Calif. and federal privacy related legislation, a hodge
podege of issue papers and so on.
------------------------------
From: bandy@aplcomm.jhuapl.edu (Mike Bandy)
Date: 20 Dec 1994 14:48:36 -0500
Subject: Re: 3 Hits and you're Out? (SSN use)
Organization: Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab
Robert Ellis Smith <0005101719@mcimail.com> writes: On Dec. 5,
1994, Geoffrey Knauth asked whether the mere fact that someone
inquires into your credit-bureau file may have negative
consequences for you. The answer is yes. Credit grantors regard
an inquiry from a company into your credit file without any
evidence in your credit file that the company subsequently granted
you credit as evidence that the company rejected you. To many
credit grantors, three inquiries in a short period of time without
any granting of credit indicates that your credit applications have
been rejected three times. That's enough for other companies to
reject you.
Indeed, I just bought a new house and had to justify to the mortgage
company a credit check made by a bank. I had no idea who they were or
what they did the check for so I just told them that it was for a Visa
Gold credit card that I was issued, never used and canceled.
Now to figure out why the bank really was looking at my credit...
--
Mike Bandy bandy@aplcomm.jhuapl.edu
Johns Hopkins University / Applied Physics Laboratory
------------------------------
From: bcn@world.std.com (Barry C Nelson)
Date: 21 Dec 1994 18:04:35 GMT
Subject: Re: Government vs. Citizen
Organization: The World Public Access UNIX, Brookline, MA
Scott Nuchow <Scott.Nuchow@f120.n109.z1.fidonet.org> wrote: But, my
experience is that no matter what laws are passed, personal
information will always become public, especially if it is the
government that wants it. This problem is growing, especially as
records and documents are fed into computers. [...] I am an
attorney and, when I represent defendants, I frequently ask or
demand that the government turn over documents. Usually, nothing
happens and the judges go along with the excuse that either such
records do not exist or that the records are secret based on some
type of privilege.
On the other hand, I was in Federal Court yesterday as clerk to
plaintiff's attorney in a civil rts case against a city. We were asking
for the list of prisoners in a lock-up cell who might have witnessed an
incident. The City claimed that Criminal Offender Record Information
(CORI) laws protect the identities of such people under Mass. state
law. The federal judge ordered the release of the information, saying
that she had the power to override such a state privacy law. (and that
she "does it all the time.")
So the information will become public (if we use it at trial) even
though the city's own attorney believed the records were protected by
law.
--
BCNelson
ps: Wouldn't there also be Constitutional arguments for requiring that
a defendant be allowed to confront and rebut the evidence against him?
------------------------------
From: Tommy the Tourist (Anon User) <nobody@csua.berkeley.edu>
Date: 22 Dec 1994 04:47:16 GMT
Subject: SSNs, Privacy and Catch 22
Organization: none
It's interesting. I've not had an ID and recently Uncle Sam encouraged
me to get some.
So, I go down to the DMV (California) and they require my SSN. I go to
Social Security and they required a 2nd piece of ID, like a library
card. I go to the library and they require a bill from the phone
company at my present address. I go to the phone company and they
request both a SSN or California State ID.
What a fascinating set of events! Catch 22 for sure.
More interesting-- in essence I MUST have SSN to get a phone because
even though they say they can't have it without my permission, the
alternative is to have California ID which requires it anyhow. So how
does the Privacy Act help me in this case?!
Hmmmmmm.
Larry Wall got us 35kg of dynamite from Pakistan. If they leave that
roof door open one more night then we'll kill him.
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------------------------------
From: Paul Robinson <paul@tdr.com>
Date: 22 Dec 1994 01:24:26 -0500 (EST)
Subject: Followup to "No I'm not Newt"
Organization: Tansin A. Darcos & Company, Silver Spring, MD USA
Ted Koppel (no, not THAT one) writes: My real name is Ted Koppel.
There happens to be another fellow, a broadcaster, who has the same
name as I do. I took my "ten free hours" on AOL, and explored the
system. Not surprisingly, I used my name (actually Tkoppel, which
is a reasonable login variation). One of the places to visit on
AOL is an area 'owned' by ABC News. I was in there, reading some
of their stuff, and talking in one of the forums there, when I was
told, in no unambiguous terms, to either get off the forum or
change my name. Since my name is, after all, on my driver's
license, I figured that I had a pretty good right to use it :-) So
I told the fellow that.
Had the circumstances been equivalent, I would have responded to such
insolence with an equivalent remark, "Why doesn't the wetback change
his name? I was born here!" (The *other* Ted Koppel is a Canadian
Subject, just like Peter Jennings and William Shatner.)
I used to be a student at Orange Coast College in Costa Mesa, CA. Can
you guess what the first and last name of the student computing service
was? Hint: his name is duplicated in the From: header of this
message. So it caused problems because one time my mother called the
computer room looking for me and was told that "Paul Robinson" wouldn't
be back for five hours, and they weren't talking about me. (For all I
know, Paul may still be working there.)
When I was living in Los Angeles County, California, me and another
user of a local BBS there passed comments about how Michael Jackson
sounds so different on his radio program, that he sounds so different
when he's on TV shows and he doesn't even sound like he's a black man
from the midwest, but like a man with a British Accent. This whole set
of comments went on for several weeks.
We got someone, who finally said "That's a different person named
Michael Jackson!" Which is when we explained that we knew that the
radio personallity and the entertainer were two different people, and
the whole conversation was to see who would notice.
For the computer industry, you can tell who is well read by asking them
"Who is Michael Jackson?" If they don't ask which one, or they fail to
mention the one who has developed a structured methodology, then they
really haven't had much background in this field.
Then there was the story about ten years ago of 54-year-old George
Bush, who won the Louisiana State Lottery. No, not THAT one.
There was a woman in Northern California who could not get her
application for a credit card approved because they thought she was
pulling their leg. Joan Collins had a hard time explaining that's
really her name, and no, she's not an actress on Dynasty.
And here's an even closer one to me. I was a contractor to the Nuclear
Regulatory Commission for several years as a telephone operator, and we
had two people named Paulette D. Smith. Before I got there it was
worse because both of them were in the same building. The NRC also has
a Dick Clark, a Johnny Mathis, and the executive director is James
Taylor, but Doris Day retired a year ago. I also was on personal terms
with Richard Bachman, who someday wants to write a book under the pen
name of "Steven Kingg", to make up for Steven King's use of the pen
name "Richard Bachmann" for a book called "Thinner". I suggested Mr.
Bachman name his book "Fatter". :)
------------------------------
From: metaman@freenet.vancouver.bc.ca (Eugene Kachmarsky)
Date: 22 Dec 1994 10:28:21 GMT
Subject: A Question about the Moderator
Organization: Vancouver Regional FreeNet
If I may.
Moderated by...?
[Moderator: CPD is a moderated system. Attempts to post are turned
into eMail to me and I post them if they meet the terms of our group.
My name is plastered all over the maillist version. If you read it
from the newsgroup comp.society.privacy then you might never see it. I
am Len Levine, Professor of Computer Science at the University of
Wisconsin - Milwaukee. I have been the moderator of Computer Privacy
Digest since December 1993. Before I took the job over it was done by
the originator of the group, Dennis Rears, a systems person at the
Picatinny Arsenal in New Jersey.
---------------------------------+-----------------------------------------
Leonard P. Levine | Moderator of: Computer Privacy Digest
Professor of Computer Science | and comp.society.privacy
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee | Post: comp-privacy@uwm.edu
Box 784, Milwaukee WI 53201 | Information: comp-privacy-request@uwm.edu
| Gopher: gopher.cs.uwm.edu
levine@cs.uwm.edu | Mosaic: gopher://gopher.cs.uwm.edu
---------------------------------+----------------------------------------]
------------------------------
From: "Prof. L. P. Levine" <levine@blatz.cs.uwm.edu>
Date: 28 Nov 1994 08:46:14 -0600 (CST)
Subject: Info on CPD, (unchanged since 11/28/94)
Organization: University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
The Computer Privacy Digest is a forum for discussion on the effect of
technology on privacy or vice versa. The digest is moderated and
gatewayed into the USENET newsgroup comp.society.privacy (Moderated).
Submissions should be sent to comp-privacy@uwm.edu and administrative
requests to comp-privacy-request@uwm.edu.
This digest is a forum with information contributed via Internet
eMail. Those who understand the technology also understand the ease of
forgery in this very free medium. Statements, therefore, should be
taken with a grain of salt and it should be clear that the actual
contributor might not be the person whose email address is posted at
the top. Any user who openly wishes to post anonymously should inform
the moderator at the beginning of the posting. He will comply.
If you read this from the comp.society.privacy newsgroup and wish to
contribute a message, you should simply post your contribution. As a
moderated newsgroup, attempts to post to the group are normally turned
into eMail to the submission address below.
On the other hand, if you read the digest eMailed to you, you generally
need only use the Reply feature of your mailer to contribute. If you
do so, it is best to modify the "Subject:" line of your mailing.
Contributions generally are acknowledged within 24 hours of
submission. An article is printed if it is relevant to the charter of
the digest and is not redundant or insulting. If selected, it is
printed within two or three days. The moderator reserves the right to
delete extraneous quoted material. He may change the subject line of
an article in order to make it easier for the reader to follow a
discussion. He will not, however, alter or edit or append to the text
except for purely technical reasons.
A library of back issues is available on ftp.cs.uwm.edu [129.89.9.18].
Login as "ftp" with password identifying yourid@yoursite. The archives
are in the directory "pub/comp-privacy".
People with gopher capability can most easily access the library at
gopher.cs.uwm.edu.
Mosaic users will find it at gopher://gopher.cs.uwm.edu.
Older archives are also held at ftp.pica.army.mil [129.139.160.133].
---------------------------------+-----------------------------------------
Leonard P. Levine | Moderator of: Computer Privacy Digest
Professor of Computer Science | and comp.society.privacy
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee | Post: comp-privacy@uwm.edu
Box 784, Milwaukee WI 53201 | Information: comp-privacy-request@uwm.edu
| Gopher: gopher.cs.uwm.edu
levine@cs.uwm.edu | Mosaic: gopher://gopher.cs.uwm.edu
---------------------------------+-----------------------------------------
------------------------------
End of Computer Privacy Digest V5 #076
******************************
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