09-02-2000

TECHNOLOGY: Stories From the Privacy Frontier

* Using stolen credit card numbers, a thief masquerading as Robert Hartle
spent more than $100,000, got fired, filed for bankruptcy claiming a debt
of $44,000, and was involved in a car accident-all without the real Robert
Hartle's knowledge. The genuine Hartle, from Phoenix, Ariz., spent $15,000
on a detective service, which used commercial data banks to track down the
thief, who was subsequently jailed. Such identity-theft crimes are on the
rise, partly because thieves can get the private data needed to falsely
acquire credit cards, bank loans, and other valuables.


* Wireless phone operators will soon be able to track their users'
locations to within a small area. Location data can provide a useful
service to customers, such as monitoring the whereabouts of cell
phone-using children. But it could also allow the phone operators to track
the location of their customers during the day, creating opportunities for
advertisers or others with an interest in tracking a person's
movements.


* Government regulators have forced banks and pressured grocery chains to
open new facilities in low-income areas. This is possible only because
regulators can comb through the companies' data, marketing plans, census
information, real estate databases, and other information.


* Employees at Apple Computer thought the Internet offered a safe haven
for them to talk anonymously about their at-work gripes without exposing
their identities to company managers-until the company sued the employees'
Internet service providers to reveal the employees' identities. The
still-undecided legal claim argues that the anonymous Internet users are
revealing company trade secrets on the Internet, but privacy advocates say
it is an effort to silence dissent.


* Technology forecasters expect the public's demand for the Internet's
communications capacity to rise sharply during the next few years. One way
to alleviate the likely traffic jams, they say, will be for online
customers to buy either a high or a low priority for their messages. For
example, a company could afford to pay the Internet provider extra each
month to ensure its transatlantic video conferences are not interrupted,
while a middle-income family could cut its monthly online bill by
accepting a lower priority for the kids' e-mails. The problem? It would
require that an identification code be affixed to every high- or
low-priority message, thereby helping the Internet provider to watch how
their customers use the Internet.


* The Usenet is the Internet's precursor, a lightly organized cyberarena
for chat groups and picture libraries. But if people use the Usenet to
chat about products or services, such as a new auto, the Web site Deja.com
will append advertising-related links to these individuals' personal
comments. The comments and ads are then seen by the many people who use
Deja.com to search the Usenet for useful information.




National Journal