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