At 01:05 PM 6/13/97 -0400, Ray Arachelian wrote:
Nor do I believe that TRW or the DMV should have the ability to sell my information to others without my permission, or collect it for that matter without a contrat that states how it will be used and who it will be shared with. Can you name one Credit Card company that DOES NOT share its info with TRW? Yes, I can get a debit card, but information about transactions on it will wind up in the hands of TRW.
They're radically different cases. TRW gets your information from people who get credit reports on you, and from creditors who lend you money, both of which are voluntary transactions on your part. You have the option, when negotiating the terms of your business with a company, to specify in your contracts what information they may pass on to third parties, and what restrictions they need to put on that information. Yes, almost everybody you deal with gives everything to TRW or one of its competitors, but you can negotiate that yourself. The reason they do is that it reduces their risks substantially when dealing with the Information Mongers, and therefore reduces their costs and makes them more likely to give you credit, and lets them charge you less money for the credit they give you. But if you can't come to an agreement with anyone, you won't be able to borrow money from them, and you'll need to pay cash up front for things, but those were all voluntary transactions as well. On the other hand, the DMV isn't voluntary - sure they tell you "well, you don't _have_ to drive or own a car", but unlike creditors, who won't do anything bad to you if you don't borrow money from them, the DMV forces you to deal with them by threatening to have cops haul you off to jail and steal your car if you drive without dealing with them. It's an offer you can't refuse. Therefore, there are two ways I can see to look at their use of data: 1) You're slaves anyway - go cope :-) 2) You've given them far more information than you wanted to, and they should respect your privacy and not give it to anyone. # Thanks; Bill # Bill Stewart, +1-415-442-2215 stewarts@ix.netcom.com # You can get PGP outside the US at ftp.ox.ac.uk/pub/crypto/pgp # (If this is a mailing list or news, please Cc: me on replies. Thanks.)