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- PRIVACY Forum Digest Sunday, 12 June 1994 Volume 03 : Issue 11
-
- Moderated by Lauren Weinstein (lauren@vortex.com)
- Vortex Technology, Woodland Hills, CA, U.S.A.
-
- ===== PRIVACY FORUM =====
-
- The PRIVACY Forum digest is supported in part by the
- ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy.
-
- **********************************************
- * PRIVACY FORUM TWO YEAR ANNIVERSARY ISSUE *
- **********************************************
-
-
- CONTENTS
- Summer Submissions for the Digest
- (Lauren Weinstein; PRIVACY Forum Moderator)
- Newsgroup censorship (Thomas M. Swiss)
- Thank you, France Telecom (Technology Strategy & Architecture)
-
-
- *** Please include a RELEVANT "Subject:" line on all submissions! ***
- *** Submissions without them may be ignored! ***
-
- -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
- The Internet PRIVACY Forum is a moderated digest for the discussion and
- analysis of issues relating to the general topic of privacy (both personal
- and collective) in the "information age" of the 1990's and beyond. The
- moderator will choose submissions for inclusion based on their relevance and
- content. Submissions will not be routinely acknowledged.
-
- ALL submissions should be addressed to "privacy@vortex.com" and must have
- RELEVANT "Subject:" lines; submissions without appropriate and relevant
- "Subject:" lines may be ignored. Excessive "signatures" on submissions are
- subject to editing. Subscriptions are by an automatic "listserv" system; for
- subscription information, please send a message consisting of the word
- "help" (quotes not included) in the BODY of a message to:
- "privacy-request@vortex.com". Mailing list problems should be reported to
- "list-maint@vortex.com". All submissions included in this digest represent
- the views of the individual authors and all submissions will be considered
- to be distributable without limitations.
-
- The PRIVACY Forum archive, including all issues of the digest and all
- related materials, is available via anonymous FTP from site "ftp.vortex.com",
- in the "/privacy" directory. Use the FTP login "ftp" or "anonymous", and
- enter your e-mail address as the password. The typical "README" and "INDEX"
- files are available to guide you through the files available for FTP
- access. PRIVACY Forum materials may also be obtained automatically via
- e-mail through the listserv system. Please follow the instructions above
- for getting the listserv "help" information, which includes details
- regarding the "index" and "get" listserv commands, which are used to access
- the PRIVACY Forum archive. All PRIVACY Forum materials are also
- available through the Internet Gopher system via a gopher server on
- site "gopher.vortex.com".
-
- For information regarding the availability of this digest via FAX, please
- send an inquiry to privacy-fax@vortex.com, call (818) 225-2800, or FAX
- to (818) 225-7203.
- -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
- VOLUME 03, ISSUE 11
-
- Quote for the day:
-
- "Don't look so scared."
-
- -- Will Randall (Jack Nicholson)
- "Wolf" (1994)
- (Release by Columbia Pictures on June 17, 1994)
-
- ----------------------------------------------------------------------
-
- Date: Sun, 12 Jun 94 11:07 PDT
- From: lauren@vortex.com (Lauren Weinstein; PRIVACY Forum Moderator)
- Subject: Summer Submissions for the Digest
-
- Greetings. We're now entering the summer season which traditionally results
- in fewer submissions to most network digests. However, this does not
- necessarily have to be the case, *if* more readers become senders. PRIVACY
- Forum is now a very large list, with readers across the globe, including
- many in Australia, where, I might note, they're about to enter--you guessed
- it--*winter*.
-
- So there's no excuse--get your privacy questions, concerns, anecdotes,
- and news in here, and we can make this a most productive season for the
- exploration of privacy issues around the world.
-
- --Lauren--
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Mon, 16 May 1994 14:19:55 -0400
- From: "Thomas M. Swiss" <tms@ziggy.tis.com>
- Subject: Newsgroup censorship (from PRIVACY Forum Digest V03 #10)
-
- In PRIVACY Forum Digest V03 #10, Willie Smith (wpns@roadrunner.pictel
- .com) comments on possible censorship of newsfeeds by the University of
- Waterloo:
-
- >There _are_ no censorship or privacy protection implications here! If
- >TPTB were preventing you from accessing the Uselessnet ("No student
- >may have an account with a public access Unix site with a full news
- >feed"), or requiring that all postings by students from those sites be
- >first vetted for 'appropriate language', then there would be an issue.
- >All I hear is "But we _want_ it!!!". If I want the Wall Street
- >Journal is the paperboy practicing censorship by not giving it to me?
-
- Here, you make an interesting comparison, which I'd like to explore a
- bit further. Let's say that the University was providing the Wall Street
- Journal to students thru the library - but was removing the editorial page.
-
- Is this censorship? Depending on the exact definition of censorship
- used, it may not be; but it certainly is censorship-like behavior, and
- should concern us. A University should be committed to spreading
- information, not stopping its distribution. If the University decides,
- based on resource allocation considerations, not to offer USENET feeds to
- its students, fine. But to pick and choose among newsgroups based on
- possibly offensive content, as appears to be the case here, is close enough
- to censorship that it should concern us.
-
- -Tom Swiss / tms@tis.com, speaking for myself.
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Fri, 20 May 94 11:07:13 MET DST
- From: Technology Strategy & Architecture <kaiser@heron.vbo.dec.com>
- Subject: Thank you, France Telecom
-
- The pay telephones in the airport at Nice have an augmented keypad that
- includes a flash/hangup button and a redial button. Almost all of the
- phones use prepaid phone cards, which are common in Europe: you buy a card
- with a prepaid number of usage units; the units are decremented as you use
- the card. Directions to use the phone, such as "Pick up the handset",
- "Insert your card", the number you're calling, and "(n) units remaining",
- are shown on the phone's LCD screen.
-
- Wednesday at the airport I was trying urgently to reach someone by phone,
- but kept getting a busy signal. I took my card out of the phone and walked
- away. Later I came back to the same phone, inserted my card, and pressed
- the redial button. It not only redialed my number, it displayed it on the
- screen.
-
- Obvious privacy risk. It was convenient at the moment, but I'd far rather
- the number be erased when the card is removed from the phone.
-
- ___Pete
-
- kaiser@heron.vbo.dec.com
- +33 92.95.62.97 FAX +33 92.95.50.50
-
- ------------------------------
-
- End of PRIVACY Forum Digest 03.11
- ************************
-