CDR: Re: CueCat tells tales...

[Tim May]

At 12:27 PM -0400 9/20/00, Declan McCullagh wrote:
>Peter, this deal was inked by Wired magazine's marketing folks, and 
>I have precisely zero contact with them. In other words, I have no 
>clue, but can probably forward you in the right direction. --Declan

I guess this really does mark the transmogrification of "Wired" into 
a Panopticon-friendly corporatocracy.

(Not that I ever expected otherwise of a company driven by glossy 
ads. The crypto and anarchy stuff is just a hint of danger to 
increase the sex appeal so more ads can be sold.)

>
>At 12:15 9/20/2000 -0400, Peter Trei wrote:
>>Well, well well, this is interesting....
>>
>>Along with my most recent issue of Wired (yes,
>>I subscribe) I got a a little box containing
>>a 'CueCat'. This is a barcode scanner shaped
>>like a stylized kittycat, made by
>>Digital Convergence.
>>...
>>
>>Well, it turns out that it does a little more
>>than just point my browser at an advertiser's
>>site. It apparently also sends a per-device
>>serial number (bound to my registration,
>>including the usual sacrifice of personal data)
>>along with the barcode data, back to Digital
>>Convergence.


>>
>>DC thus gets to build a profile of my interests,
>>bound to the name, address, etc I provided at
>>registration.

Sounds like another chance for "mixes" at physical meetings. Put your 
Cue Cat in a bowl with a bunch of others. Of course, folks may not 
want more physical spam arriving in their mailboxes.

Or provide false addresses. Perhaps the addresses of Cue Cat or Wired staff?

>>
>>DC does have a moderately good privacy policy
>>stated on their web page, and claims they
>>will never voluntarily release per-person
>>data to third parties.

Being able to fake sincerity is essential to operating in the modern 
Internet business environment. Platitudes about customer privacy are 
necessary. Remember eToys.


BTW, I just flipped through a copy of "Wired" in one of our 
bookstores. First time I've done so in a couple of years. Still 
dominated by ads, and blurbs on "cool stuff" that doesn't look very 
interesting to me.

When "Wired" came out, it was heavily criticized for its "ransom 
note" style, and its clutter and visual confusion. Interestingly, now 
the very news stands themselves have become exemplars of this visual 
confusion: go into any "Borders" or "Barnes and Noble" and see 
literally 1500 magazines crowding the shelves. A dozen magazines on 
skateboarding, several dozen on "style".... magazines for women, for 
persons of peircing, for transgendered pizza deliverypersons, for any 
conceivable group.

The whole news stand looks like a ransom note.

--Tim May
-- 
---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:----
Timothy C. May              | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money,
ComSec 3DES:   831-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero
W.A.S.T.E.: Corralitos, CA  | knowledge, reputations, information markets,
"Cyphernomicon"             | black markets, collapse of governments.