Re: Privacy under attack, but does anybody care?

[Robert <Robert@xxxxxxx>]

Robert L Bass wrote:
> By Bob Sullivan
> Technology correspondent
> MSNBC
> Updated: 4:14 p.m. ET Oct. 17, 2006
>
>
>             Bob Sullivan
>             Technology correspondent
>
> --------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>             . Profile
>             . E-mail
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>
> Someday a stranger will read your e-mail, rummage through your instant messages without your permission or scan the Web sites you've
> visited - maybe even find out that you read this story.
>
> You might be spied in a lingerie store by a secret camera or traced using a computer chip in your car, your clothes or your skin.
>
> Perhaps someone will casually glance through your credit card purchases or cell phone bills, or a political consultant might select
> you for special attention based on personal data purchased from a vendor.
>
>
>
> In fact, it's likely some of these things have already happened to you.
>
> Who would watch you without your permission?  It might be a spouse, a girlfriend, a marketing company, a boss, a cop or a criminal.
> Whoever it is, they will see you in a way you never intended to be seen - the 21st century equivalent of being caught naked.
>
>            NBC VIDEO
>
>
>             . Online privacy woes
>             MSNBC.com's Bob Sullivan talks to MSNBC's Allison Steward about the connection between privacy and pizza.
>             The Most
>
>
> Psychologists tell us boundaries are healthy, that it's important to reveal yourself to friends, family and lovers in stages, at
> appropriate times. But few boundaries remain. The digital bread crumbs you leave everywhere make it easy for strangers to
> reconstruct who you are, where you are and what you like. In some cases, a simple Google search can reveal what you think. Like it
> or not, increasingly we live in a world where you simply cannot keep a secret.
>
> The key question is: Does that matter?
>
> For many Americans, the answer apparently is "no."
>
> When pollsters ask Americans about privacy, most say they are concerned about losing it. An MSNBC.com survey, which will be covered
> in detail on Tuesday, found an overwhelming pessimism about privacy, with 60 percent of respondents saying they feel their privacy
> is "slipping away, and that bothers me."
>
> People do and don't care
> But people say one thing and do another.
>
> Only a tiny fraction of Americans - 7 percent, according to a recent survey by The Ponemon Institute - change any behaviors in an
> effort to preserve their privacy. Few people turn down a discount at toll booths to avoid using the EZ-Pass system that can track
> automobile movements.
>
> And few turn down supermarket loyalty cards. Carnegie Mellon privacy economist Alessandro Acquisti has run a series of tests that
> reveal people will surrender personal information like Social Security numbers just to get their hands on a measly 50-cents-off
> coupon.
>
> But woe to the organization that loses a laptop computer containing personal information.
>
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>