[Tfug] The NET

[john galt]

From: "Bexley Hall" <bexley401 at yahoo.com>
> One thing "organizations" have going for them is
> "numbers".  They can look at large data sets and
> make deductions based on patterns observed in
> that "population" as a whole (in our class exercise,
> we were looking at a single individual so couldn't
> benefit from that additional "knowledge").

I had hoped this stupid thread would go away, but why not 
join them instead?

About the three letter acronym agencies, it's interesting 
when people focus on them rather than the consultants who 
sell them technology and do their dirty work in the gray 
areas of law.

Consider the following "gray area" (which I don't feel is so 
gray after all)
Take a peek into the shadowy world of pretexting
Opinion by J. Scott Orr
http://www.azstarnet.com/allheadlines/148761

Joseph Sanscrainte, a telecommunications and privacy lawyer 
with the New York firm of Bryan Cave, said pretexting is a 
new word for an old ploy: "It's just a more friendly way of 
saying 'pretending to be somebody else in order to get 
information.' It can apply to anything, really." Robert 
Smith, a former pretexter who now owns a public relations 
firm in suburban Chicago, agreed.

"Basically, it was just me disguising myself as someone to 
get info I needed," said Smith, who used the information he 
gathered to hunt down deadbeat dads and other debtors.
"It works because the average person just wants to help. 
You're trying to put them in the position of trying to help 
somebody," he said.

Gary Miller, a corporate lawyer with the Philadelphia firm 
of Eckert Seamans, said it is unclear if pretexting to gain 
access to telephone records is illegal. Federal law 
currently bans pretexting to get financial records, but does 
not mention other kinds of personal data.
"Nobody is 100 percent sure what makes it illegal. There is 
no specific statute outside of the financial services sector 
that would apply. . . . I think it would make sense to have 
something that comes right out and says basically that it's 
illegal to present yourself as somebody you're not to gain 
access to telephone records," he said.