[49608] in Cypherpunks
bullshit (was: Re: Fair Credit Reporting Act and Privacy Act)
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (t byfield)
Fri Feb 9 03:16:44 1996
Date: Fri, 9 Feb 1996 03:17:52 -0500
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
From: tbyfield@panix.com (t byfield)
Cc: luka@kud-fp.si, abusby@serf.uccs.edu
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At 10:18 PM 2/8/96, Bill Stewart wrote:
>The parts of the Privacy Act that I remember are all restrictions
>on _government_ actions, not private actions. It's an important=20
>distinction; even though TRW may know way too much about you, it's all=
information that >you voluntarily released to somebody, unlike data that=20
>the government requires you to give them. And, yes, it's out-of-date=20
>and toothless.
It's important to distinguish between information that you've=
voluntarily released as such (e.g., giving someone your SSN) and=
information derived from analysis of your actions (e.g., repayment=
patterns, value-added with a proprietary scoring system) and/or=
consolidated from small releases of info here and there--and most of the=
material in a typical TRW or Equifax dossier is of the latter kind.
ObCrypto? Vaguely. I've been thinking about the possibilities of=
"bullshit generators"--simple programs that would generate names and=
various kinds of facts about people who don't exist and "make this info=
available": email addresses to SSNs, addresses, credit histories, medical=
records, you name it. If "bullshit bots" became generally available and=
easy to implement, "information markets"--a phrase that's far too general=
to capture the complexity of the dynamics it refers to--would stratify=
pretty fast: groundfeeders like the fine folks who're now grepping=
newsfeeds for email addresses + interests could be laid waste to pretty=
fast by a handful of dormant newsgroups systematically flooded with posts=
from gjhfkj@opihk.com or poipoh@axsx.org. Who'd pay for a DB that's half=
bogus? Alternatively: who'd pay to prevent their DB from being corrupted?=
Companies like Equifax would be harder to penetrate, but by no means beyond=
reach: there are so many people out there who they don't have files on=
yet--in ghettoes, in Eastern Europe--that they could be duped. We tend to=
think of information markets as markets for _true_ information; but as=
those markets mature, they'll breed parallel "counterweight"=
markets--markets, in essence, for _false_ information. Equifax and TRW got=
the goods on you? How much would you pay to vanish into a crowd of newly=
created people with excellent credit ratings who are all just a few diddled=
digits away from you, your SSN, your address, your phone number, your=
mother's maiden name...? The latest issue of RISKS (2/8/96, 17:70) has a=
kvetch about <http://www.graviton.com/red/>, "The Red Herring Home Page":
> A little experimentation revealed that almost ANY obscure search
>would match "The information source", often as the only matching=20
>document found. As near as I could figure out, his site recognized
>probes by web robots and then threw a dictionary at them!
Congress would be hard pressed to illegalize fiction.
;)
Ted
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