PRIVACY Forum Digest     Wednesday, 16 September 1992     Volume 01 : Issue 17

         Moderated by Lauren Weinstein (lauren@cv.vortex.com)
                Vortex Technology, Topanga, CA, U.S.A.
        
                     ===== PRIVACY FORUM =====

          The PRIVACY Forum digest is supported in part by the 
              ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy.


CONTENTS
        Telephone comm encryption (Daniel Burstein)
        Re: Wells Fargo Bank changes customer security system 
            (Lynn R. Grant)
        Re: Wells Fargo Bank changes customer security system
            (Tom Zmudzinski)


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VOLUME 01, ISSUE 17

    Quote for the day:

                "I never drink--wine."

                                Dracula (Bela Lugosi)
                                  "Dracula" (1931)

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Date:    Thu, 10 Sep 92 07:36 GMT
From:    Daniel Burstein <0001964967@mcimail.com>
Subject: telephone comm encryption

A product I am eagerly waiting for, and I keep hearing rumors about, is a
standard looking modular handset with an encryption algorythm incorporated.

This would significantly improve the privacy and security (not necessarily
the same thing) of phone calls.  It has the added advantage of being
portable from instrument to instrument (although a pair would be needed).

The electronics for all sorts of encryption levels are presumably
straightforward, yet the only things I've seen on the market are
acoustically coupled speech invertors.

While I can understand (although strongly disagree with) that there might be
restirctions on RSA/DES ++ quality units, surely someone has one available.
Any leads greatfully appreciated.

Thank you,
Danny

<dburstein@mcimail.com>

------------------------------

Date:    Thu, 10 Sep 92 12:03 EDT
From:    Lynn R Grant <Grant@DOCKMASTER.NCSC.MIL>
Subject: Re: Wells Fargo Bank changes customer security system

Regarding Randy Gellins' comment in V16 about whether stores could use
the fact that they don't collect data about your buying habits as a
marketing advantage...

To some degree, this is what AT&T is doing in response to MCI's "Circle
of friends and family" program.  They're running adds that say if you
use their long distance service, you don't have those pesky MCI people
bothering your friends.  They even say something like, "We feel that
your friends and family are your own business."

If it works for AT&T, maybe the same marketing approach really would
work for stores.

Lynn Grant

------------------------------

Date:    Mon, 14 Sep 92 08:50:05 EDT
From:    Tom Zmudzinski <zmudzint@CC.ims.disa.mil>
Subject: Re: Wells Fargo Bank changes customer security system

In PRIVACY #16, Randy Gellens asked:

>> What would it take to change our institutions so that technological
   advances were used to help people retain more privacy, instead of
   causing us to have less?

Well, it's no a panacea, but I favor the idea [that unfortunately died
in the House three-four(?) years back] that every February 1st, every
business that has a database entry identifying ANYONE would have have
to notify that person IN FULL.  That is, if XYZ Corp. has an entry on
1/ea "Tom Zmudzinski", XYZ Corp. would have to REGISTERED MAIL /RETURN
RECEIPT me an annotated copy of ALL the data they have on me (no cute
li'l computer codes like "27J" -- it would all have to be translated
into StupidSpeak).

This modest proposal puts a co$t (production, mailing, and bookkeeping)
on keeping track of identifiable individuals.  (Statistical models of
customers would be "free".)

The preceding _may_ have been the greatest work of fiction since
vows of fidelity were included in the French wedding ceremony.
Make of it what you will.

Tom Zmudzinski

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End of PRIVACY Forum Digest 01.17
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