Data privacy tensions

By Michael Fraase

Thursday, 20 May 1999 06:34PM CST

Section: Privacy

It’s a fight worthy of any playground audience and the battle has been raging for almost twenty years.

Companies that amass and sell personal information do so without compunction and insist, with a straight face, that they have every right to do so. Like rabid weasels, they ferociously guard what they consider to be their turf. Weasel teeth bare in fully-foamed mouths, growls rise in weasel throats, and scruffy weasel hair raises in response to so much as a hint of government regulation.

These weasels remind me—figuratively and literally—of a poodle my grandma had late in her life that would fiercely react to any attempt to remove him from behind the toilet when he misbehaved. Grandma would use a broom and that poodle would make quick work of it, redefining in my mind the whole concept of “hellhound.”

On the other side are the weaseled. You and me. Most of us (according to Georgia Tech’s annual surveys) want “complete control” over our personal data.

Every time we manage to corner the weasel behind the toilet, we draw back a gnawed nub of a broom handle.

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Anonymity in cyberspace

By Michael Fraase

Tuesday, 27 April 1999 06:54PM CST

Section: Privacy

Think anonymity is an issue of little interest to you because you have nothing to hide? Think again. Almost anyone, given a little thought, can imagine a scenario where absolute anonymity would be necessary to avoid harm.

Think about ethnic Albanians being rooted out of Kosovo. Anonymity helps victims of ethnic cleansing and associated atrocities document their plight with some measure of safety.

Think about an abusive working environment or relationship and being able to register a complaint, anonymously, with the appropriate agency.

Even the Justice Department, no friend of secure communications of any kind, recognizes the inherent value of anonymity: “Anonymity has incontestable value in a huge number of situations, and it is constitutionally protected,” Philip Reitinger, a Justice Department prosecutor, told attendees of the mid-April 1999 Computers, Freedom, and Privacy conference in Washington, DC. Maybe it was a mistake because Reitinger told the next session that “if you’re serious about prosecuting crime on the global communications infrastructure, you have to have traceability.”

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The state of independent publishing—1999

By Michael Fraase

Monday, 26 April 1999 08:37PM CST

Section: Publishing

The eve of Book Expo America is an appropriate time to survey the state of independent publishing. It sucks. The end. (But consider reading on; it’s getting even worse.)

“Returns” is one of the biggest problems facing independent publishers. It’s a system for generating more waste than value. For the uninitiated, books are traditionally sold on consignment to what’s called the “channel.” The channel is the chain by which publishers sell to distributors who sell to wholesalers who sell to bookstores who sell to you. At every link in the chain except the last, the books are usually fully returnable.

ARTS & FARCES sells its titles to the channel on a non-returnable basis. Books we sell to you are fully returnable, for any reason, for thirty days. We don’t actively court the channel; we’d rather talk to and trade with you directly. I’ve written previously about our alternative publishing model (“Way New Publishing” Part 1 and Part 2).

Returns, we are told, are a cost of doing business and are the sole responsibility of publishers. This is hammered into our pointed heads until they are flattened. Our trade associations tell us this, as do many of our fellow publishers. Books wouldn’t sell, we’re told, if they can’t be returned.

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