Roland Perry on 16 April 2004 at 12:48 said:-
> It is nothing to do with credit cards. The DoB is taken from
> your ID card (which in most cases will also be your driving licence).
> {I have wondered about presenting my Amex, whose "Member
> Since" field shows I must be over 21 (unless they issue cards
> to people before they are born), but haven't felt cheeky enough yet.}
I have a partial memory about the use of D/L information being restricted by
regulation in the USA. Not sure if that is at a state or federal level.
> On my DoB? Probably none. But remember, they aren't gathering
> my *name*, if I pay by cash. Americans don't mind people
> knowing their age or birth date. It might add a little to the
> blizzard of direct marketing junk, but that's totally out of
> control anyway.
I had understood plastic transactions were a main method of payment in the
USA these days and consequently wondered if the linkage of DoB material via
credit card info to the name could facilitate the retailer undertaking
further data matching enabling more focused direct marketing by age group
within proven customers and saving the expense of obtaining info from the
credit reference bureau, or being able to sell the material to the Direct
Marketing Companies.
> You keep going on about "stated" this that and the other. Do
> you mean the Constitution? Whatever that might say, the
> rights of individual Americans have been eroded since way
> back when.
What is meant by 'stated' is the information we have each stated in this
discussion. Accepting I have a certain lack of experience or knowledge in
the USA culture and believing you will equally retain many of the UK
cultural viewpoints our statements will not provide an accurately
comprehensive picture of the privacy factors operating in this particular
area. I also accept that an inevitable part of a social group construct is a
certain erosion of individual rights over time, which are then equally
inevitably corrected by adverse reaction when that erosion becomes onerous.
As examples of broadening the 'stated':-
1. USA is said to be a nationalistic culture. Nationalism can be used as a
means of holding diverse groups together. Nationalism has also historically
been shown to have many areas of danger associated with internally
unrecognised skewed perspectives or strong viewpoints. (My previous
statement earlier in this thread) Consider religion in the same light.
2. Information can be seen as power. Privacy can be seen as control of
personal information (DP). DP can then be seen as a constraint on power and
may be measured within a power/interest matrix. I do not subscribe to that
singular viewpoint of privacy; But consider the power issues are a
distracting use made of part of the privacy paradigm. A symptom if you like
possibly more indicative of other matters, and which is quite difficult to
remove from the equation as it is strengthened in most groups by various
factors.
> As for rights in the employment situation, Americans are
> spied on more by their employers, subjected to things like
> compulsory drug tests, and so on. Their view is largely "if
> you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen".
Refer to above.
Many thanks. I hope the discussion has proven useful to you as well.
Ian W
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