Privacy and the use of cell phones.

[David Biggins]

On Monday, March 12, 2001 08:45   Jaap-Henk Hoepman writes:

....<snip>....
Many surveys report that people think privacy is important to them. The 
problem is that people fail to act accordingly. See e.g. the success of 
loyalty schemes at the supermarket that allow tracking op shopping
habbits.
....<snip>....

Hopefully on-topic ramble follows:

Privacy IS important to me,  **BUT** realistically to avoid such
tracking I'd also have to give up the convenience of paying by
credit/debit card and carry cash around.  So there is a (fairly
unconscious) balancing of priorities going on.

I tend to feel that the supermarket loyalty card doesn't make the risk
of intrusion noticeably worse.   Like many people I know, I already
assume that they track you by payment card whether you have a loyalty
card or not. So I take the points and live with it.  I'd suspect that
many people (even those who like me object to the principle) do the
same.

Does that make us lazy, or just realists?

As for the phone issue - I think that in the UK, we have all simply
assumed, ever since the early 80's and Greenham Common et al., that our
security services will (find a way to) snoop on anyone in this country
whose beliefs they object to.  Our concerns have therefore generally
descended to the next level of "Is my credit card number secure when I
give it on the phone?" - and generally we have assumed that on digital
phones, the risk 'at the other end' exceeds the risk in transit.
Analogue mobiles are perceived as a greater risk in transit.

BUT for most US citizens I have known, there has been a far greater
assumption that their security services are pointing more overseas
rather than at their own dissenters.  Perhaps they have felt that their
services are more accountable  <hnurff, hnurff, hnurff>.

Indeed I get the distinct impression that the risks are seen as
primarily social rather than commercial - possibly an indication of how
many of their neighbours they think may have access to the right/wrong
equipment, and where as a result they feel the greatest risks lie...

Tandy UK, RIP...



## dave ##