NP corp. use of customer info

[JEANNIE BERNIER]

Well, there have been a couple of widely publicized stalking cases in the
non-wired world - one was here in Illinois where a guy obtained a woman's
name and address through the department of motor vehicles after getting her
plate number, (he promptly murdered her) and the other was out in California
where a child molester got a list of households with children from Metromail
(now Experian).  In the first case, the government's of most states have no
privacy policies in place for vehicle info, so it's extremely easy to get -
the burden is entirely on the driver in Illinois to write a letter and have
their information removed from mailing lists (although this may have changed
somewhat because of the murder).  In fact, your driver's licence here
contains your SSN number unless you specifically request that it not be
included, and the state of Georgia uses your SSN number as your Driver's
Licence number, which makes it very convenient for would be identify thiefs
to get all kinds of goodies in your name if you happen to have your wallet
lifted.

In the case of Metromail/Experian, anyone can purchase a list, and they
still include presence of children as an attribute.

But, to risk using the simple "guns don't kill people..." argument, a
dedicated crazy will be able to get the info he or she needs to stalk, maim,
rape or kill their target of choice.  I do think, however, that in cases
where you are required to give copious amounts of information, particularly
the DMV and the Census (both Gubmint entities, mind you) there should be a
clearly stated, widely advertised policy of how that info may be used, and
how you can opt not to have it used said way if you object.

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Doug Millison [mailto:millison at online-journalist.com]
> Sent: Tuesday, July 11, 2000 1:10 PM
> To: pynchon-l at waste.org
> Subject: Re: NP corp. use of customer info
> 
> 
> >Paul Mackin:
> >By the way the reason this (particular) sort of thing "tends to go
> >unnoticed" is that it's only fairly recently that ecommerce 
> firms have
> >been going into backruptcy in such great numbers.
> 
> True, ecommerce bankruptcies are a relatively recent phenomenon. 
> I'll stick by my previous statement about why this kind of thing 
> (sharing of consumer information among companies and the use of it to 
> compile ever-more-detailed profiles of individual customer activities 
> and preferences) tends to go unnoticed.  It is reported and discussed 
> in niche publications that cover the direct marketing industry. 
> But, it's not widely reported in the mass media and computer industry 
> press -- even broadbased business press publications tend to ignore 
> it until something like the Toysmart.com bankruptcy comes along to 
> push it into the focus of top-tier publications like the NY Times and 
> Washington Post.
> -- 
> 
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>