From: utzoo!decvax!harpo!seismo!hao!hplabs!hplabsb!soreff Newsgroups: net.politics Title: a new topic: privacy Article-I.D.: hplabsb.1397 Posted: Fri Feb 25 16:00:24 1983 Received: Sun Feb 27 03:11:02 1983 I suggest that the capitalism/socialism debate is getting stale and that introducing a new topic might be desirable at this point. I suggest that the impact of assorted things (technology, political changes, demographics, etc.) on privacy might be a good topic. I think that there are a variety of distinct types of privacy and that they are subject to different threats. The privacy of one's political views, for instance, are not invariably compromised when the IRS starts to intrude into the details of one's finances. One's educational and medical records also present (partially) separate issues. I have read comments to the effect that maintaining financial privacy is almost hopeless, because of the records one must produce for tax purposes. Do you think that this is true, false, or an oversimplification? Do you think that the other forms are privacy are as threatened, less threatened, or more threatened? -Jeffrey Soreff (hplabs!hplabsb!soreff) P.S. mail (even flames) welcome