Date: Wed, 08 Mar 95 14:33:18 EST Errors-To: Comp-privacy Error Handler From: Computer Privacy Digest Moderator To: Comp-privacy@uwm.edu Subject: Computer Privacy Digest V6#025 Computer Privacy Digest Wed, 08 Mar 95 Volume 6 : Issue: 025 Today's Topics: Moderator: Leonard P. Levine Proving your Citizenship Re: The IRS and INS Consumer Protection Resource Kit Version 1 Re: Compuserve Sued for Delivering "Junk E-Mail" SSN Question Research on Caller ID Experience Wanted Sprint Privacy Issue on 10 Cents-a-minute Calls Info on CPD [unchanged since 12/29/94] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: dominic@enk.ks.se (Dominic-Luc Webb) Date: 05 Mar 1995 08:00:41 +0800 Subject: Proving your Citizenship Illegal Immigration Control Act of 1995 (HR 756). Introduced by Hunter. Authorized Wiretaps for illegal immigration investigations, false id. Requires issuence of "enhanced" Social Security cards to all citizens and resident aliens by year 2000 that will include photo, SSN, and are machine readable. Orders Attorney General to create databases for verification. Referred to Committee on Judiciary. The problem here is the number of Americans, especially younger ones who, like me had a terrible time trying to prove legitimate citizenship, who must wait many years to get a job because of the requirement to prove citizenship. Is the same thing going to happen with this. There are a lot of Americans who simply cannot prove citizenship. ------------------------------ From: wrf@ecse.rpi.edu (Wm. Randolph U Franklin) Date: 06 Mar 1995 19:10:18 GMT Subject: Re: The IRS and INS Organization: ECSE Dept, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY, 12180 USA 1. Before leaving the country, aliens, at least, are supposed to get a "sailing permit" from the IRS, showing that no taxes are owing. I don't know to what extent this is actually enforced. 2. According the Practicing Law Institute(?) handbook on immigration, if you are a student applying for a green card, the INS is interested in whether you paid your taxes when a student. This is not mentioned in the official info from the INS. 3. Concerning what info the INS has, someone reported (here?) that when he arrived at Toronto airport from Europe and then drove to the US, at the border they knew that he'd just arrived at Toronto. 4. At least for the Xray machines, I have good luck seeing the CRT's reflection in the operator's eyeglasses. My vision isn't good enough to read text that way, however. 5. I'd be surprised that the FOIA would get you their file on you since I thought that it contains unsubstantiated rumors of criminality. Is that FOIA'able? -- Wm. Randolph Franklin, wrf@ecse.rpi.edu, (518) 276-6077; Fax: -6261 ECSE Dept., 6026 JEC, Rensselaer Polytechnic Inst, Troy NY, 12180 USA ------------------------------ From: ggaldia@utdallas.edu (George) Date: 06 Mar 1995 10:58:06 -0600 Subject: Consumer Protection Resource Kit Version 1 Organization: The University of Texas at Dallas I created a Word 6 document called CPRKV1.DOC and an EXCEL 5.0 spreadsheet called CPRKV1.XLS that I hope will make it easier for people to get their names removed from junk mailing lists, request and correct credit files and medical records, get their statement of earnings from the SSA, and persue complaints against merchants who rip them off. If you want, thanks to James Gardner, you can download the file from FTP.RAHUL.NET in the sub dir PUB/JAG/PRIVACY. If you find the file useful, please feel free to post it to other sites. I am open to suggestions on how to improve it. I don't have an ascii version yet, but hope to have on sometime before the summer. ------------------------------ From: gmcgath@condes.MV.COM (Gary McGath) Date: 07 Mar 1995 17:44:59 GMT Subject: Re: Compuserve Sued for Delivering "Junk E-Mail" Organization: Conceptual Design rlk@max.tiac.net (Robert Krawitz) wrote: In this case, it appears (judging from the outfit that posted the ad) that Compuserve itself sent the ad, rather than merely carrying it. That's more like the phone company interrupting a long distance call to advertise a new service, perhaps. In this case, the service is using the customer's funds to deliver unwanted advertising to the customer. I used to subscribe to Compuserve; unless their operation has changed severely, user operations are never interrupted to send E-mail to the user. Your argument seems to say that a service provider doesn't have the right to send E-mail to its users; I have to regard this as a completely bizarre claim. In the case of an automated mailing list, normally the subscriber has to take an explicit action to be placed on the list. I should think that that would constitute consent to receive any mailings that were sent to the list. But in any E-mail exchange, someone must initiate the transaction. Even if you claim that it's only unsolicited E-mail that constitutes illegal use of automatic dialing equipment (and I don't see what the issue of solicitation has to do with that claim), anyone who sends out an unsolicited message to a bunch of other people to try to get their attention -- for example, to call their attention to a new governmental outrage -- is violating the law, as you construe it. This would have a horrible chilling effect on all electronic communication. If people are denied the freedom to communicate with each other by arbitrary, constantly changing interpretations of laws, then every other freedom -- including programming freedom -- is endangered. -- Gary McGath gmcgath@condes.mv.com PGP Fingerprint: 3E B3 62 C8 F8 9E E9 3A 67 E7 71 99 71 BD FA 29 ------------------------------ From: gmcgath@condes.MV.COM (Gary McGath) Date: 07 Mar 1995 17:48:51 GMT Subject: SSN Question Organization: Conceptual Design Recently a magazine sent me a set of writer's guidelines, which contained the following remarkable (to me, anyway) claim: "Please understand that, by law, we can not send payment for an article until we have your personal information including your social security number." Does anyone know if this is true? Is there actually a law prohibiting a party to a contract from making due payment (or should I say: entitling it to back out of its obligation) if the government fails to get its tax information? This has to be a direct violation of the Constitutional clause that forbids impairment of contractual obligations; but I realize that the Constitution has long since ceased to be any kind of barrier to the government. -- Gary McGath gmcgath@condes.mv.com PGP Fingerprint: 3E B3 62 C8 F8 9E E9 3A 67 E7 71 99 71 BD FA 29 ------------------------------ From: pbwhite@latrobe.edu.au (Peter B White) Date: 08 Mar 1995 20:02:46 +1000 Subject: Research on Caller ID Experience Wanted I am searching for pointers to any research studies which deal with responses to the introduction of Caller ID. If you would like to contact me directly, I would be pleased to post any bibliography which might eventuate. In addition I am looking for research which deals with the experiences of telephone users after the introduction of Caller ID. If individuals would like to contact me directly, I would be pleased to post any bibliography which might eventuate. Peter B. White, Director, Online Media Program, Department of Media Studies, La Trobe University, Bundoora, Victoria, Australia. -- Peter B. White Director, La Trobe University Online Media Program, Department of Media Studies, La Trobe University Bundoora, Victoria 3083, Australia email: pbwhite@latrobe.edu.au phone: +61 3 479 2785 fax: +61 3 817 5875 ------------------------------ From: hudspeth@jarhead (Todd Hudspeth) Date: 08 Mar 95 08:49:56 CST Subject: Sprint Privacy Issue on 10 Cents-a-minute Calls I obtained this off of a Usenet list and thought it might provide some insight to the new Sprint calling plan. From petey.3.14159@akron-info.com () Subject: SPRINT 10 CENTS/MIN Date: 06 Mar 95 17:15:03 -0400 I just signed up for Sprint's 10 cents a min. Here's the poop: They want permission to record the whole signup converstaion (I said no), They want permission to call the numbers on your bill to sell them Sprint ( I said no). They want your SSN,DOB whether you own or rent, have a checking acct, major credir card. The primetime rate is 22 cents a min -- they don't tell that unless you ask of course. It costs an extra 80 cents to make a credit card call. The card can have your home phone on it or have a random acct no (I chose the latter). The 100 free minutes? They calculate that at the 10 cent rate and give you $5 credit on the first 2 bills. They will also send you a $5 credit certificate to cover the cost of the changeover fee from the Baby Bell. Is there an alternate carrier that charges less than 10 cents a minute? Hey Murphy Brown says it's cheaper than a postcard.... ------------------------------ From: "Prof. L. P. Levine" Date: 29 Dec 1994 10:50:22 -0600 (CST) Subject: Info on CPD [unchanged since 12/29/94] Organization: University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee The Computer Privacy Digest is a forum for discussion on the effect of technology on privacy or vice versa. 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Contributions generally are acknowledged within 24 hours of submission. If selected, they are printed within two or three days. The moderator reserves the right to delete extraneous quoted material. He may change the SUBJECT: line of an article in order to make it easier for the reader to follow a discussion. He will not, however, alter or edit or append to the text except for purely technical reasons. A library of back issues is available on ftp.cs.uwm.edu [129.89.9.18]. Login as "ftp" with password identifying yourid@yoursite. The archives are in the directory "pub/comp-privacy". People with gopher capability can most easily access the library at gopher.cs.uwm.edu. Mosaic users will find it at gopher://gopher.cs.uwm.edu. Older archives are also held at ftp.pica.army.mil [129.139.160.133]. ---------------------------------+----------------------------------------- Leonard P. Levine | Moderator of: Computer Privacy Digest Professor of Computer Science | and comp.society.privacy University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee | Post: comp-privacy@uwm.edu Box 784, Milwaukee WI 53201 | Information: comp-privacy-request@uwm.edu | Gopher: gopher.cs.uwm.edu levine@cs.uwm.edu | Mosaic: gopher://gopher.cs.uwm.edu ---------------------------------+----------------------------------------- ------------------------------ End of Computer Privacy Digest V6 #025 ****************************** .