[privacy] Bye-bye, privacy

[Gregory Hicks <ghicks () cadence com>]

February 11, 2008 - 9:08 P.M.
Bye-bye, privacy
By Mitch Betts

http://blogs.computerworld.com/bye_bye_privacy?source=NLT_VVR&nlid=37

I know: Some folks say privacy already is dead. And maybe they're
right. But it's amazing the privacy abuses I see happening today --
with nary a peep of protest! My latest example:

The Wall Street Journal has a story saying a new company called TRA
will be combining purchasing data from frequent-shopping cards with
viewing habits from TV set-top boxes to see if people actually buy
stuff they see advertised on TV.

I realize this is the Holy Grail of advertising: to find out whether it
really works. But this also blatantly breaks one of the old-fashioned
privacy principles of the 1970s: Personal data collected for one
purpose shouldn't be used for a different purpose.

(I know, quaint, isn't it?)

Back in the 1960s, 1970s and even early 1980s there were howls of
protest when the government wanted to combine different "data banks"
(as they were called then) or do "computer matching" of different
databases.

Now, with the private sector combining all sorts of databases -- not a
peep.


-------------------------------------------------------------------
Gregory Hicks                        | Principal Systems Engineer
Cadence Design Systems               | Direct:   408.576.3609
2655 Seely Ave M/S 9A1
San Jose, CA 95134

I am perfectly capable of learning from my mistakes.  I will surely
learn a great deal today.

"A democracy is a sheep and two wolves deciding on what to have for
lunch.  Freedom is a well armed sheep contesting the results of the
decision."

"The best we can hope for concerning the people at large is that they
be properly armed." --Alexander Hamilton

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