FW: Privacy and Consumer Profiling lacks meaningful safeguards

 
This is a communication sent by a former intelligence officer to me his
token left/lib/hippie friend, but mostly to other former intelligence
agents.  The sender was gung ho in support of war in Viet Nam and again
in Iraq, e.g. - not a bleeding heart liberal, but he is WORRIED about
the loss of privacy because of the magnitude of personal information
available when you mix the govt and private sources into the Total
Information Awareness (TIA) program.  We should be worried also about
the lack of safeguards.  Of course we all want to be safe from terrorist
attacks. Is the person boarding the cross-country plane who s/he says
s/he is ???
 
The issue is where is the right balance?  Who gets to decide?  What
protection is built into the records?  What information is buyable by
whom?  Can they resell the information?  It would appear that the ACLU
and certain vigilant legislators on the left and the right are the only
bulwark, albeit leaky one at best.
 
Dan Burnstein
 
 
 
 
-----Original Message-----
From: GH 
Sent: Wednesday, March 24, 2004 9:58 PM
To: Subject: Privacy and Consumer Profiling
 
Listmembers have responded to the DARPA/Poindexter email regarding TIA
data aggregation from commercial sources.  Permit me to say to those
that responded, your concern will ramp when you are aware of the
magnitude of what is available on various commercial sources.  If TIA or
any other entity can integrate what is commercially available, the owner
will have an astonishing snapshot of US nationals.  The following is
snippet from a much larger list.  (The demographic categories noted in
"TSA Helped JetBlue Share Data, Report Says" is the tip of an iceberg.):
Privacy and Consumer Profiling
 <http://www.epic.org/privacy/profiling/>
http://www.epic.org/privacy/profiling/

Profiling is the recording and classification of behaviors. This occurs
through aggregating information from online and offline purchase data,
supermarket savings cards, white pages, surveys, sweepstakes and contest
entries, financial records, property records, U.S. Census records, motor
vehicle data, automatic number information, credit card transactions,
phone records (Customer Proprietary Network Information or "CPNI"),
credit records, product warranty cards, the sale of magazine and catalog
subscriptions, and public records. Profiling has sparked an entire
industry euphemistically labeled "Customer Relations Management" (CRM)
or "Personalization."
Companies collect information derived from a number of resources to
build comprehensive profiles on individuals in order to sell products
and to sell dossiers on behavior. This is often done without notice or
extending a choice to the individual to opt-out of the dossier building.
These dossiers may be used by marketers for target advertising, and they
may be sold to government for law enforcement purposes. Companies also
"enhance" dossiers that they already own by combining or "overlaying"
information from other databases. These dossiers may link individual's
identities to the following attributes:
*	Social Security Number 
*	Shopping preferences 
*	Health information, including diet type, allergies, arthritis,
incontinence/bladder problems, diabetes, hearing loss, prostate
problems, and visual impairment, birth defects 
*	Marital status 
*	Financial situation (solvency, creditworthiness, loan amounts,
credit cards) 
*	Date of Birth 
*	Sex 
*	Age 
*	Household income 
*	Race and ethnicity 
*	Geography 
*	Physical characteristics, such as height and weight 
*	Household occupants (whether an individual has children) 
*	Telephone number 
*	Utility usage (electric or gas usage, telephone usage, cable or
satellite usage, Internet subscription, celluar phone usage) 
*	Magazine subscriptions 
*	Occupation 
*	Level of education 
*	Whether an individual is likely to respond to "money-making
opportunities" 
*	Congressional district  Size of clothes worn 
*	Habits (smoking) 
*	Arrest records 
*	Lifestyle preferences 
*	Hobbies (whether and what the individual collects) 
*	Religion (affiliation and denomination) 
*	Homeownership 
*	Characteristics of residence (size, number of bedrooms and
bathrooms, sale price, rent and mortgage payments) 
*	Type of automobile owned 
*	Characteristics of automobile owned (year, make, value, fuel
type, number of cylinders, presence of vanity or special membership
plates) 
*	Whether the individual responds to direct mail solicitations 
*	Contributions to political, religious, and charitable groups 
*	Membership in book, video, tape, and compact disk clubs 
*	Mail order purchases and type 
*	Product ownership (beeper, contact lenses, electronics, fitness
equipment, recreational equipment) 
*	Pet ownership and type 
*	Interests (including gambling, arts, antiques, astrology) 
*	Book preferences 
*	Music preferences 
*	"Socialites"   
These profiles are also indexed by other factors, such as wealth. For
instance, American List Counsel sells an "ultra affluent database" that
is overlaid with information on age, sex, and presence of children. The
database includes the individuals' home phone numbers. Many of the
"affluent persons" databases are mined from public record filings
(Security and Exchange Commission, State Corporations Registration
lists) where individuals are compelled by law to reveal their personal
information.
Profiling companies have well-developed lexicons to classify
individuals. Claritas, for instance, divides individuals into fifteen
different groups, which are in turn categorized into various subgroups.
These include: 
*	"Elite Suburbs" (Blue Blood Estates, Winner's Circle, Executive
Suites, Pools & Patios, Kids & Cul-de-Sacs). 
*	"Urban Uptown" (Urban Gold Coast, Money & Brains, Young
Literati, American Dreams, Bohemian Mix). 
*	"2nd City Society" (Second City Elite, Upward Bound, Gray
Power). 
*	"Landed Gentry" (Country Squires, God's Country, Big Fish Small
Pond, Greenbelt Families). 
*	"Affluentials" (Young Influentials, New Empty Nests, Boomers &
Babies, Suburban Sprawl, Blue-Chip Blues) 
*	"Inner Suburbs" (Upstarts & Seniors, New Beginnings, Mobility
Blues, Gray Collars). 
*	"Urban Midscale" (Urban Achievers, Big City Blend, Old Yankee
Rows, Mid-City Mix, Latino America). 
*	"2nd City Center" (Middleburg Managers, Boomtown Singles,
Starter Families, Sunset City Blues, Towns & Gowns). 
*	"Exurban Blues" (New Homesteaders, Middle America, Red White and
Blues, Military Quarters). 
*	"Country Families" (Big Sky Families, New Eco-topia, River City
USA, Shotguns and Pickups). 
*	"Urban Cores" (Single City Blues, Hispanic Mix, Inner Cities). 
*	"2nd City Blues" (Smalltown Downtown, Hometown Retired, Family
Scramble, Southside City). 
*	"Working Towns" (Golden Ponds, Rural Industria, Norma Rae-ville,
Mines and Mills). 
*	"Heartlanders" (Agri-Business, Grain Belt). 
*	"Rustic Living" (Blue Highways, Rustic Elders, Back Country
Folks, Scrub Pine Flats, Hard Scrabble). 
These profiles can be purchased at surprisingly low prices. Many
companies will sell information at a cost of $65 per million names.
Profilers prefer "complied lists"--databases generated from white pages,
directories, public records, and membership lists to "response lists."
Response lists are generated from catalog sales and other methods where
the consumer responds to a solicitation. Compiled lists are more
lucrative for profilers because they can overlay data with lifestyle
behavior and engage in telemarketing without the consumer's permission.
In the process of aggregating profiles, any number of persons may
acquire the information of another. In fact, one of the largest
commercial profilers, Metromail (now owned by Experian), used prisoners
to enter personal information from surveys into computers. This resulted
in a stalking case where a prisoner harassed a woman based on
information she submitted on a survey. The woman received mail from a
convicted rapist and burglar who knew everything about her--including
her preferences for bath soap and magazines. In fact, Metromail
maintained a voluminous amount of data on the woman. Metromail had
twenty-five pages of personal data on her, including her income, and
information on when she had used hemorrhoid medicine. 
The woman sued (Beverly Dennis, et al. v. Metromail, et al., No.
96-04451, Travis County, Texas.) and as a result of a class-action suit,
Metromail may no longer use prisoners to process personal information.
During litigation, Metromail claimed that they had not violated the
woman's privacy, that they had no duty to inform individuals that
prisoners were processing their personal data, and that the data
processed was not highly intimate or embarrassing.
Many of the profiles are bought and transmitted electronically over the
Internet with little regard for the purposes for which the information
will be ultimately used. In fact, to demonstrate the indiscriminate sale
of personal information, in 1996 Kyra Phillips of the CBS affiliate
KCBS-TV in Los Angeles, purchased personal information on 5,000 children
from Metromail, which was owned by Donnelly Marketing. The reporter used
the name Richard Allen Davis, who had confessed to the murder of Polly
Klaas and was on trial for the crime, to purchase the children's contact
information.
Medical Profiling 
No aspect of an individual's private life is too sensitive to be
categorized, compiled, and sold to others. For instance, the Medical
Marketing Service sells lists of persons suffering from various
ailments. These lists are cross-referenced with information regarding
age, educational level, family dwelling size, gender, income, lifestyle,
marital status, and presence of children. The list of ailments includes:

*	Allergy - Nasal 
*	Allergies - Wheat
*	Alzheimer's (Incl. Adult Caregiver) 
*	Arthritis 
*	Asthma 
*	Athletes Foot 
*	Breast Cancer 
*	Bronchitis 
*	Cancer 
*	Celiac - Sprue 
*	Chewing and Swallowing Difficulties 
*	Chronic Back Pain 
*	Clinical Depression 
*	Colon Cancer 
*	Constipation 
*	Contact Lenses 
*	Crohns Disease 
*	Dandruff 
*	Dentures 
*	Diabetes - All (also Type 1 and 2) 
*	Dry/Flaky Skin 
*	Eczema 
*	Emphysema 
*	Epilepsy 
*	Frequent Chapped Lips 
*	Frequent Cold Sores 
*	Frequent Flu 
*	Fungus Infections 
*	Fungus Infect - Nail/Foot 
*	GERD / Acid Reflux / Ulcers 
*	Gingivitis 
*	Glasses 
*	Glaucoma 
*	Hair Loss/Baldness 
*	Headaches       Hearing Impaired/Hearing Aid 
*	Heart Attack 
*	Heartburn/Acid Indigestion 
*	Heart Disease 
*	High Blood Pressure 
*	High Cholesterol 
*	Hyperthyroidism 
*	Impotence/ED 
*	Incontinence- Urine 
*	Insomnia 
*	Irritable Bowel Syndrome 
*	Lactose Intolerance 
*	Low Protein Disorder 
*	Lyme Disease 
*	Menopause 
*	Menstrual Cramps 
*	Migraines 
*	Motion Sickness 
*	Multiple Sclerosis 
*	Obesity 
*	Osteoporosis 
*	Parkinson's Disease 
*	Prostate Cancer 
*	Psoriasis 
*	Rheumatoid Arthritis 
*	Rosacea 
*	Sensitive Teeth 
*	Shingles 
*	Spinal Cord Injury 
*	Ulcerative Colitis 
*	Ulcers 
*	Use Wheelchair 
*	Yeast Infection        
 <http://www.mmslists.com/> Medical Marketing Service. 
 <http://www.mmslists.com/consumers_by_ailment.htm> Medical Marketing
Service Consumers by Ailment List. 
 <http://www.hippodirect.com/ListSubjectsN_1.asp?lSubject=37> Hippo
Direct Medical Maladies Direct Marketing Lists. 
 <http://www.mib.com> Medical Information Bureau. 
 
Regards, GH


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]



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