[Web4lib] Fwd: [CIRCPLUS] Student admits he lied about Mao bo ok

[Karen Coyle]

I admit that I still worry about cookies, AIDS, and health insurance 
coverage, both separate and in conjunction with each other. The problem 
is that you can't prove that it won't ever happen, and we know that 
there are interests in this country, like insurance companies and anyone 
who relies on your credit rating, who are not bound by any rules of 
privacy or rights. I do know people who have lost job opportunities that 
they believe they can link back to Usenet postings of more than decade 
ago, which are now accessible during a "background check." Who would 
have ever thought that at the time? And on one health-related discussion 
list I saw a posting from a woman who had complained on the list about 
her insurance company and got a call from a company rep a few days 
later. Because my health status is in a direct relation to the revenue 
earnings of an insurance company, and because they can use just about 
any criteria to choose not to take me as a customer, then I think that 
the cookies/AIDS/health insurance scenario is not an entirely unlikely 
one. I do think that "check out a book, go to jail" is fairly unlikely, 
for a number of reasons, not the least of which is that we have some 
legal protections against government interference in our choice of 
reading material.

To relate this to web4lib more directly, I still think that libraries 
are an ideal place for many people to learn about "privacy literacy," 
both in relation to the web and in relation to other activities in this 
grand information society of ours.

Call me paranoid -- I may still have real enemies,
kc

Patricia F Anderson wrote:

> Yep, yep, yep! A lot of the worry with this is like folks' reaction 
> when cookies first started being used, and I heard about people 
> worrying that a web search for AIDS/HIV would get their health 
> insurance coverage cancelled. Yes, it is possible; no, it is not 
> likely; no, we have no evidence that it is happening or has ever 
> happened. :-) Try worrying about something more likely, eh? However, 
> the plausible context is important to acknowledge in allaying those 
> worries. -- Patricia A., pfa at umich.edu
>
> On Tue, 27 Dec 2005, Dan Lester wrote:
>
>> Tuesday, December 27, 2005, 8:00:19 AM, you wrote:
>>
>> PFA> How would the library know? That is what made the story so 
>> plausible. The
>> PFA> backbone of the Internet was ARPANET, owned by US military. It 
>> does not
>> PFA> seem improbable that there might be ways for various units of 
>> the US
>> PFA> government to observe aspects of Internet traffic that attract 
>> their
>> PFA> attention.
>>
>> Could traffic be monitored?  Sure.  Is it likely that all, or ANY
>> routine traffic is monitored?  Not likely.  If they were so upset
>> about the Chinese edition of the Little Red Book, why wouldn't they go
>> after the libraries that OWN it?
>>
>> Also, the possibility of any agency monitoring ALL internet traffic is
>> absurd.  Even with automated techniques it would be impossible.  I've
>> used words like "bomb" and "Iraq" and "911" and "terrorist" in many
>> messages...and no one has come after me.  And now I said "little red
>> book" so maybe my file will get thicker?
>>
>> PFA> With ILL processes so dependent on the Internet these days,
>> PFA> what was described may be possible, whether or not it has 
>> actually ever
>> PFA> happened.
>>
>> Yes, possible is one thing....but there were just WAAAY too many holes
>> in the story to be plausible...just as there are too many holes in all
>> the spams that will make you rich if you send some money off to
>> [country of your choice]
>>
>> -- 
>> Dan Lester, Data Wrangler  dan at RiverOfData.com 208-283-7711
>> 3577 East Pecan, Boise, Idaho  83716-7115 USA
>> www.riverofdata.com  Fair is whatever God decides to do.
>>
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>>
>>
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-- 
-----------------------------------
Karen Coyle / Digital Library Consultant
kcoyle at kcoyle.net http://www.kcoyle.net
ph.: 510-540-7596
fx.: 510-848-3913
mo.: 510-435-8234
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