From: Peter Breton <pbreton@cs.umb.edu>
Date: Thu, 4 Mar 93 06:54:30 PST
To: Karl Barrus <elee9sf@Menudo.UH.EDU>
Subject: Re: SOCIETY: crypto impact
In-Reply-To: <199303032336.AA26450@Menudo.UH.EDU>
Message-ID: <Pine.3.05.9303040936.A1050-a100000@ra.cs.umb.edu>
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> On a related note, it is amazing how much information about you
> exists.  Did anyone else watch a PBS documentary about this (sorry, I
> can't remember the name of it)?  In the report, a writer researched
> how direct mail marketing departments seek out infomation - from going
> to the county court house and obtaining property and deed information,
> to using census information to classify your living habits,
> professional organizations you belong to, catalogs for mailing lists
> of various interests, etc.  Some supermarkets were even testing a
> system in which your purchases (scanned by the bar code reader) are
> saved and indexed by your credit card or check!  Banks could then sell
> this extremely valuable information to direct mail houses.

  Check out the books "Privacy for Sale" and "The Naked Consumer" for
thorough treatments of this topic. Or read the *.privacy groups for a
while....

		Peter