From: Graham Toal <gtoal@an-teallach.com>
Date: Tue, 19 Apr 94 17:20:17 PDT
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Re: Privacy and the lack thereof.
Message-ID: <199404200012.BAA02913@an-teallach.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


: From: Jim Sewell - KD4CKQ <jims@central.keywest.mpgn.com>

: name/id.  Safe at last, or are you?  What if "they" analyzed all the
: ATM machines in that general area and got a report of everyone who 
: withdrew Gun_Price + 0-to-100 dollars. (Spending money).  They could
: narrow it down and eventually, since they suspect you anyway, get your
: pix from the ATM video camera.  Take this to the gun man and you're id'd.

It's worse than that if they're on the ball.  All they have to do is
match up the serial numbers on the bills you spent in the shop with
the ones fed into the ATM at whatever banks you got money from.  I
don't know for sure about the US, but in the UK bills are tracked
with OCR at various points in the banking chain.  Worse, many ATMs
in the early days insisted on brand new notes thatr didn't jam, so
the serial numbers were often sequential and *definitely* on file
somewhere.

Anyway, if they just want your picture for ID, it doesn't have to
be from the most recent bank transaction.  People's pictures are
floating around all over nowadays unfortunately.  You can be sure
your passport picture is on file and almost certainly digitised
nowadays, but there are lots of other places you'll show up -
buss pass, bank card, graduation photo, annual class photo, last
time you entered the country through customs - it's very hard to
avoid getting your picture on file.  Anyway, in real life it
would be the other way round - the gun shop would have your pic
on tape from the security camera, and the feds would be the one
to ID you from that video, not the shop owner.

G