phone lookups

[Bettina Jodda (Twister)]

Hello 

Having followed the recent debate about
"Data and if it should be published when being available to anyone"
I could not resist to put my opinion to it :-)

> >Ben Wrote:
> >There's a fundamental difference - the traffic data is not freely
> >available to all comers.
>
> John replied:
> I don't see the basic difference: traffic data is freely available to some
> Governmental
> agencies. By your argument it shouldn't matter if it's available to a few
> more.

I think, for example for me in Germany, this disc is not so easily available.
So why telling me these details?
In Germany it is rather easy to get details about me from the local 
authorities - I do not know if you are familiar with the German system so let 
me just say a few words to it:

When I move from one city to another, I have to go to the local authority 
(city council?) and tell them that I am going to move away, which is 
officially printed out and signed by the authority.
Then I have to go to the local authority of my new "hometown", give them the 
signed printout and so I get another printout stating where I do live now --- 
I have to show an official document of the one who I am paying the rent to or 
show them the document which states that the place is my own.

The new address will be changed on my ID-card (Personalausweis)
I am legally obliged to carry my ID-card with me to be able to prove my 
identity any time.


But back to the data:
anyone can go to the local authority, pay a few Euro and get the following 
data:
surname
first name
recent address

If you have "a logical interest" (which could mean: Oh, I just want to find 
out where my former friend lives, he owes me some money still....(I tried 
this)) you can go to the local authorities and give the name of the person 
and you get:
address (recent and former ones)
date of birth
recent status (married, divorced, single)
date of moving into the new flate, date of moving out
former names (name of birth etc)

So anyone can get this data --- as for me I have my own homepage so that by 
looking at the DENIC-page you can get my recent address and my full name.
So with these (or even just with the knowledge of my recent place of living) 
you can go to the authorities here and ask for the data named above.
Anyone could do so!

But should that mean that these data should be spread around in the internet, 
in mailing-lists etc?
I hope not.

Sorry for the long mail and the long introduction but this came across my 
mind.

Twister