Tim May wrote:
For physical books, there's always physical cash. (Pace the "Uncle Fester's" book bought in the Denver bookstore, that the Feds want the bookstore to reveal the buyer of.)
Right. Pay cash, and don't lodge any "want list" with the dealer, or anything else that would reveal your identity.
For online purchases, this trend of Feds snooping on reading habits could be a business opportunity for an anonymized online buying system. How could physical delivery be arranged?
First, purchase with some form of untraceable credit card.
I believe that there exists, or existed, a debit card on the prepaid phone card model. Show up at a retail "card store," give them cash and get a debit card with a "credit limit" equal to the value of the card. The card behaves like a credit card for retail purchase purposes, but doesn't have your name on it or associated with it in any database. Anybody know if this is still being offered?
Second, delivery to a local bookstore or even a Mailboxes, Etc., with pickup by matching the ID. For a small commission.
Sort of a private Poste Restante. Neat.
(This should not be in violation of any laws. This is not a mail cover, nor a money changing, etc. operation. Just a package delivery service.)
Unfortunately, the Postal Service puts pressure on the retail mail outlets to have their customers complete a Post Office form that "identifies" them. I can't remember whether the outfit I used actually asked me for ID, though.
One can imagine t.v. cameras set up, but unlikely if there are thousands of such delivery sites.
Relatively easy to defeat, in any case. If the identifying feature for picking up the parcel is a number or code, rather than a biometric feature, the simplest disguise would do the trick. You would not have to look like anyone in particular, least of all yourself. I predict a spike in the sale of Groucho Marx masks.
Organizations like the ACLU, EFF, etc. could even set up such book-ordering services, perhaps via liberty-sympathetic lawyers in various cities and towns, to make the PR point that such services are the only way around government snooping on the citizen-units.
Hmm. Fundraising activity, anyone? Marc de Piolenc