Date: Tue, 01 Aug 95 13:54:00 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 V7#009
Computer Privacy Digest Tue, 01 Aug 95 Volume 7 : Issue: 009
Today's Topics: Moderator: Leonard P. Levine
Re: Phone Sales
Re: Phone Sales
Re: Phone Sales
RE: Phone sales
Re: Phone Sales.
Re: Tracking a User on the Net
E-porn at Eastern Washington University
P. O. Box
Re: More SSN Abuse
Re: Texas Driver's License
Wisconsin Operator's License
Caller ID Blockers
Survey: Money on the Internet
Ralph Nader on Windows 95 Problems
Info on CPD [unchanged since 12/29/94]
----------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Robert Bulmash <75754.2763@CompuServe.COM>
Date: 29 Jul 1995 17:35:56 GMT
Subject: Re: Phone Sales
Organization: Private Citizen, Inc.
Private Citizen, Inc. will notify over 1400 firms nationwide that:
1) you are unwilling to freely receive telephone solictations of
any type (sales - charity - survey )
2) that you ask to be put on their do-not-call list
3) that you offer to accept such calls (from a notified firm) on a
for-hire basis of $500 per call
If you know of firms that you want to be sure are notified, you may
send PCI the name, full address & phone for inclusion. PCI will send
you a list of the firms so notified. The cost is $20 to join call
1-800/CUT-JUNK
------------------------------
From: bo774@freenet.carleton.ca (Kelly Bert Manning)
Date: 29 Jul 1995 23:05:58 GMT
Subject: Re: Phone Sales
Organization: The National Capital FreeNet, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
Maryjo Bruce (sunshine@netcom.com) writes: Is there any reliable
way to stop phone sales calls.
Have you tried the Readers Digest method? It goes something like (big
sigh of relief) "Oh, you want to sell me something, thank goodness, I
thought it was another bill collector, gee, sounds like a really great
bargain, but they cancelled all my credit cards and I never have
anything in my bank account since the garnishees started getting
deducted from my pay."
Of course, my cynical streak tells me that the real product in direct
marketing is solicitations, not sales, and that an inhouse or service
bureau direct marketing operation would rather have a 1% success rate
on a scattershot solicitation than a higher rate on a solicitation that
excludes people who never buy from direct marketing soliciations.
If they send less junk there is less justification for inflated charges
if it is a service bureau operation, or for staff and management salary
if it is done in house.
------------------------------
From: steigelmann@picard.capd.abbott.com (Jim Steigelmann)
Date: 31 Jul 1995 23:34:06 GMT
Subject: Re: Phone Sales
Organization: Abbott Labs.
Maryjo Bruce <sunshine@netcom.com> says: I then sent a written
request to an address given me by the phone co asking that all
sales calls to my number be stopped. It had no effect at all. My
number is unpublished and unlisted.
Just a suggestion - when and if they call, tell them that you are a
telephone marketing analyst and charge $250/hr - if they want to talk
to you, you will start billing immedeatly, and if they call back, you
will assume that they are entering into a billable contract with you.
If they ever anoy you again, time the call and send them a bill.
Alternate suggestion - if it is the same company calling you, tell them
that their calls are unwelcome, and that if they continue to call you,
you will contact the police because of their harassment.
--
Jim Steigelmann
----------------------------------------------------------
The opinions expressed are my own and do not represent the
opinions of my employer, my boss, the state of Illinois,
the government of the United States of America, or of the
world in general...
-----------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------
From: ecm@matufia.sp.TRW.COM (ecm)
Date: 31 Jul 1995 18:11:01 -0700
Subject: RE: Phone sales
Maryjo Bruce (sunshine@netcom.com) writes: Is there any reliable
way to stop phone sales calls.
I don't know if there is a reliable way to stop phone sales calls, but
I have been handling them for some time with a very simple technique
that puts me under no stress and gives me a little satisfaction since I
make them waste some time. As soon as I determine a call is sales
related (wrong first name, "calling from <name of far away city>", or
"How are YOU today?", etc), I ask "Please, hold?" and press the hold
button. I have found only very few operators dense enough to call
twice in a row; but they seem to eventually wise up: nobody has called
three times in row. The longest somebody stayed in line was 12
minutes. The MCI people normally wait religiously for 5 to 6 minutes.
Of course if you need the phone, you can always cut them off.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Enrique A. Caponi Ocean Technology Department |
| TRW S&TG, Mail Stop R1-1008, One Space Park, Redondo Beach, CA 90278 |
| ecm@matufia.sp.TRW.com Phone: 310.812.0451 FAX: 310.814.2359 |
------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------
From: Dean Ridgway <ridgwad@PEAK.ORG>
Date: 31 Jul 1995 00:05:57 -0700
Subject: Re: Phone Sales.
Maryjo Bruce (sunshine@netcom.com) writes: Is there any reliable
way to stop phone sales calls.
One firm calls me 3x daily, 4 days/week sometimes. When I call their
number on the caller id box, I get a message saying it is a non-working
number. Through the phone co I located the business. I phoned
personally and asked to be put on the no-call list. A phone co rep did
the same in my behalf. They told us both to buzz off. They continued
calling.
I don't remember the specific law off hand (communications privacy
act?), but telemarketers are REQUIRED BY FEDERAL LAW to take you off
their call list if you ask them. Tell the phone company that you want
to file a complaint and if they continue to call, the phone company is
REQUIRED to disconnect their phone service.
Another tactic I have heard about (but never tried) is file papers with
the state and set yourself up as a small business. Then start charging
them $100 a phone call as "consultation fees". If you set it up right
I have heard that they are required to pay.
I would personally follow #1, get the feds to do your dirty work for you,
otherwise you have to hire an attorney and get a court injunction against
them.
Good luck on your problem.
--
/\-/\ Dean Ridgway | Two roads diverged in a wood, and I-
( - - ) InterNet ridgwad@peak.org | I took the one less traveled by,
=\_v_/= FidoNet 1:357/1.103 | And that has made all the difference.
CIS 73225,512 | "The Road Not Taken" - Robert Frost.
http://www.peak.org/~ridgwad/
PGP mail encouraged, finger for key: 28C577F3 2A5655AFD792B0FB 9BA31E6AB4683126
------------------------------
From: Barry Kopulos <Barry.Kopulos@WinInfoNet.MB.CA>
Date: 29 Jul 1995 15:21:18 -0500 (CDT)
Subject: Re: Tracking a User on the Net
I am just wowndering and so have a few intrenet users I have talked to
is it possible for the provdier os iste one is linking into to identify
the exact location you originated fromand then pinpoint your name,etc.
This could aply to logging into web sites,ftp sites or even postingt o
news group. Are there any programs that can track that kind of
information and how could one become anonymous invisible when linking
to a site and no source showed up.
------------------------------
From: "Mich Kabay [NCSA Sys_Op]" <75300.3232@compuserve.com>
Date: 31 Jul 95 23:09:38 EDT
Subject: E-porn at Eastern Washington University
>From the Associated Press news wire via CompuServe's Executive News Service:
APn 95.07.27 10:52 Professor-Porn
CHENEY, Wash. (AP) -- Eastern Washington University has suspended a
geology professor who kept thousands of child pornography photos
stored on his campus computer.
Russell Boggs, 42, had collected the photographs -- some showing
children as young as 3 -- since April.
The article explains that Boggs' wife, Peggy-Lynn Boggs, has been doing
a research project on erotic literature and that she asked her husband
to collect such photographs for her. On Wednesday 95.07.26 a judge in
Spokane made the details of search warrants public; at that point the
University suspended Professor Boggs.
--
M.E.Kabay,Ph.D. / Dir. Education, Natl Computer Security Assn (Carlisle, PA)
------------------------------
From: tye@metronet.com (Tye McQueen)
Date: 29 Jul 1995 23:54:03 -0500
Subject: P. O. Box
Organization: Texas Metronet, Inc (login info (214/705-2901 - 817/571-0400))
coleman@alexia.lis.uiuc.edu (Scott Coleman) writes: As for myself,
my checks have my name and PO Box number. This is enough to satisfy
those merchants which use check guarantee services which require a
preprinted name and address.
It is quite common for grocery stores here to demand a "physical
address". At three different stores I have been told that the local
District Attorney (or some such) won't pursue cases of bad checks
unless an address other than a PO box was obtained.
I get the impression that the ubiquitous mistrust of PO boxes is
waning, however. The last several times I've filled out forms listing
only my PO box address (and sometimes omiting much other information)
I've gotten much less resistance than I've become accustomed to.
--
Tye McQueen tye@metronet.com || tye@doober.usu.edu
Nothing is obvious unless you are overlooking something
------------------------------
From: sean@sdg.dra.com (Sean Donelan)
Date: 30 Jul 95 04:28:16 CDT
Subject: Re: More SSN Abuse
Organization: Data Research Associates, St. Louis MO
PHILS@RELAY.RELAY.COM (Philip H. Smith) writes: A local Washington,
DC TV station was recently doing a story on Jack Kent Cooke, owner
of the Washington Redskins (among other things). As part of the
story, they were discussing his refusal to discuss his income
publicly, and mentioned that they had a copy of his tax return.
They then SHOWED the front page of a tax return filled out with his
name and address, including an SSN! One can only hope that it was
NOT his real SSN...
A bigger question migh be where did they get a copy of his tax return?
But once the press had it, and judged it newsworthy, I have severe
problems with restricting the press. A few weeks ago a national news
magazine (Newsweek, or US News, I can't remember which) had a story on
gun licenses. One of the photographs was a woman getting her picture
taken for the license. Her name and license number on the board she was
holding. The license number looked like XXX-XX-XXXX, which I guess was
her SSN. Now available for anyone who wants to know in a national
magazine. I would question why the state was using the her SSN as the
license number. Unlike driver's licenses, I don't think Congress has
authorized the use of SSN's for gun licenses.
On a related note, I noticed when the White House released copies of
Bill Clinton's 1994 tax returns this year, someone had blacked out
Bill's, Hillary's and Chelsea's SSNs. I never saw a politician do that
before. In 1993, the White House released the Clintons' tax returns
including SSN's.
Apparently the Vice-president's office didn't feel the same, since Al
Gore's 1994 tax returns didn't have his family's SSNs blacked out.
It'll be interesting to see what happens next year.
--
Sean Donelan, Data Research Associates, Inc, St. Louis, MO
Affiliation given for identification not representation
------------------------------
From: Athena Consulting <athena@communique.net>
Date: 30 Jul 1995 12:10:16 GMT
Subject: Re: Texas Driver's License
Organization: Communique Inc., New Orleans
Maryjo Bruce <sunshine@netcom.com> wrote: I just went to have my
driver's license renewed in Texas. I had to provide both right and
left thumbprints. Does every state do that?
No. California started requiring right hand thumbprints in I believe
1990. And it is really cute, they're digitized so if you try to give
them the corner of your thumb they can see if immediately and get
really pissed. Hey I didn't know at the time!
I just changed my CA d/l to a LA one. Lousisana now actually has MAG
strip licenses. But they didn't take fingerprints.
------------------------------
From: Professor L. Levine <levine@cs.uwm.edu>
Date: 01 Aug 1995 13:10:16 GMT
Subject: Wisconsin Operator's License
Organization: University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
For about a year now the State of Wisconsin had demanded your Social
Security Number when renewing your Operator's License (Driver's
License) or License Plates but has not listed that number in any space
you can find.
This week the dropped the other shoe. From now on, if you get a
parking ticket or do not pay civil fines they will extract the money
from your Income Tax Refund. The SSN will be the link. This will
mean megabucks for the State and for the Cities involved.
------------------------------
From: Athena Consulting <athena@communique.net>
Date: 30 Jul 1995 12:14:37 GMT
Subject: Caller ID Blockers
Organization: Communique Inc., New Orleans
I am very new to this CALLER ID concept. I just moved to LA from
California where they do not allow the masses to have CID. I have seen
a device you can purchase from specialty catalogs for like $40 that
claims to stop your name and number from being read. Does anyone know
if these work or not? Thanks!
------------------------------
From: r.m.weiler@ic.ac.uk (Mr R.M. Weiler)
Date: 31 Jul 1995 11:10:43 GMT
Subject: Survey: Money on the Internet
Organization: Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine, London
Hi there!
I am doing an MBA research on the use of money on the Internet. I would
appreciate it if you could answer a short survey on this subject, found
at the following Web site:
http://graph.ms.ic.ac.uk/money
I would also appreciate any remark on this survey. Please tell your
friend about it, too.
--
Roy Weiler
The MAnagement School
Imperial College
e-mail: r.m.weiler@ic.ac.uk
------------------------------
From: James Love <love@essential.org>
Date: 31 Jul 1995 08:57:24 -0400
Subject: Ralph Nader on Windows 95 Problems
-----------------------------------------------------------------
TAP-INFO - An Internet newsletter available from listproc@tap.org
-----------------------------------------------------------------
TAXPAYER ASSETS PROJECT - INFORMATION POLICY NOTE
July 31, 1995
MICROSOFT WINDOWS 95
- Ralph Nader and James Love send letter to Clinton
Administration outlining criticism of two features of
Microsoft WINDOWS 95.
- Letter objects to Microsoft decision to "bundle" its new
Microsoft Network (MSN) with WINDOWS 95, and the Microsoft
"Registration Wizard," which provides Microsoft with
information on files located on customer hard disk.
- Nader and Love express support for Department of Justice
(DOJ) antitrust action to address both problems, and ask
Clinton to prevent federal agencies from buying WINDOWS 95
until the information gathering features of the
"Registration Wizard" are disabled or modified.
jamie (love@tap.org; 202/387-8030)
The letter follows.
Ralph Nader
P.O. Box 19312, Washington, DC 20036
James Love
Consumer Project on Technology
P.O. Box 19367, Washington, DC 20036
love@tap.org; voice 202/387-8030
July 26, 1995
President William Clinton
the White House
Washington, DC
Dear President Clinton,
We are writing to ask you and your administration to take
actions which address problems arising from Microsoft's near
monopoly position in the market for personal computer operating
systems. As you know, two features of Microsoft's WINDOWS 95
software have been widely criticized -- the "bundling of
Microsoft Network (MSN) and Microsoft's online "Registration
Wizard." These issues are discussed below.
1. Microsoft Network.
The "bundling" of Microsoft Network (MSN) with WINDOWS 95
has raised alarm among Microsoft's competitors that Microsoft
will use its dominate market position for operating system
software to give MSN an enormous advantage over its rivals in the
market for online service providers. In brief, Microsoft has
written its new version of Windows with a built-in way to
register for its new online service. According to reports by
beta users of the product, Microsoft has given the MSN a very
high priority, including a special icon which cannot be deleted
by the user, and periodic queries by the operating system to the
user, encouraging registration. Apparently no other rival online
services vendor will have the opportunity to receive similar
status within Windows 95. In our view, Microsoft's actions are a
predictable attempt to exploit its dominance in the operating
system market to benefit its penetration into other fields that
are potentially more competitive.
One analogy to this practice is in the area of airplane
reservations. American Airlines operated the dominant online
service for airline reservations, and arranged the available
flights in alphabetical order, giving American Airlines what
turned out to be a large advantage over its rivals. The
government subsequently regulated this practice, so that the
online reservations systems would not be used in an anti-
competitive manner. We believe it is appropriate and justified
for the Department of Justice to take actions that would prevent
Microsoft from bundling MSN with WINDOWS 95 as has been done in
their beta releases of the product.
2. Registration Wizard.
Another objectionable feature of WINDOWS 95 is the Microsoft
online "Registration Wizard." This part of the program is
designed to scan automatically a user's hard disk, dial-up
Microsoft, and download information to Microsoft about the files
on the user's hard disk, including the titles and versions of
software applications. Critics of this practice, including the
Department of Defense, have questioned the impact of this
practice on data security and privacy. Microsoft's rivals also
believe that it will give Microsoft an enormous advantage in
marketing by virtue of the fact that it gives Microsoft excellent
intelligence on its competitors, including the names and
addresses of their customers.
Microsoft has defended the Wizard by saying that the
information is gathered to help its product support personnel
debug its software, and that consumers can choose not to send the
information to Microsoft. We believe that both arguments are
disingenuous. First of all, the registration process is separate
from customer service, and if Microsoft really wanted to use the
information for customer service it could devise far less
intrusive methods of doing so, such as a program to printout
relevant information for use during a consumer service call,
rather than at the point of registration. Secondly, consumers
are likely to be confused and intimidated by the registration
process, because of concerns that this complex software might not
function correctly if they refuse to give Microsoft the
information it wants to collects.
In our view, the Registration Wizard is an intrusive measure
that uses technology to erode customer privacy, and we urge you
to take steps to discourage its use. Specifically, we urge you
to ask OMB officials Sally Katzen, Administer of the Office of
Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA), and Stephen Kelman,
Administrator for Federal Procurement Policy, to issue a
directive to all federal agencies, advising them not to purchase
WINDOWS 95 with the Registration Wizard. This would be similar
to the very successful actions taken by federal agencies in the
1980's to refuse to purchase spreadsheet and database software
that placed "hidden" files on hard disks as part of copyright
protection schemes, a proactive measure which moved the entire
market away from such ill-conceived practices.
We also believe it is appropriate and justified for the
Department of Justice to take actions that would prevent
Microsoft from sharing the information gathered from the
Registration Wizard with its marketing personnel.
Please let us know what you will do about these important
matters.
Sincerely
Ralph Nader James Love
Consumer Project on Technology
ps: Of course, we were pleased to read press reports that
Microsoft recently said it would make the MSN abide by the
European Union's Directive on Data Protection, and we urge
Microsoft's competitors in online services, such as American
Online, Prodigy or Compuserve, to embrace these rules which
protect customer privacy.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
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data, government funded R&D, spectrum allocation and other government
assets. TAP-INFO reports on TAP activities relating to federal
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TAP-INFO is archived at gopher.essential.org in the Taxpayer Assets
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Subscription requests to tap-info to listproc@tap.org with
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Taxpayer Assets Project; P.O. Box 19367, Washington, DC 20036
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------------------------------
From: "Prof. L. P. Levine" <levine@blatz.cs.uwm.edu>
Date: 29 Dec 1994 10:50:22 -0600 (CST)
Subject: Info on CPD [unchanged since 12/29/94]
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
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On the other hand, if you read the digest eMailed to you, you generally
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Contributions to CPD should be submitted, with appropriate, substantive
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contributions considered as personal comments; usual disclaimers
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Contributions generally are acknowledged within 24 hours of
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The moderator reserves the right to delete extraneous quoted material.
He may change the SUBJECT: line of an article in order to make it
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alter or edit or append to the text except for purely technical
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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 V7 #009
******************************
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