AOL Jack Davies National Press Club Address

[Stewart Fist]

Here is another view of AOL from an American columnist.

> Unfortunately, the first online experience for many novices is the "shop 'til you drop" America Online, the crisis-a-minute computer service founded by mega-huckster Steve Case. Virtually each week some new outrage surfaces about AOL and the continuing disrespect it shows for its customers. 

> A recent revelation to surface is that AOL links information about its subscribers with other data acquired from outside database marketing firms. This new combined data, which includes personal information such as income, length of residence, age, number of children and past purchasing patterns on AOL, is then sold to third parties who can use it anyway they choose. AOL's PR flacks call the practice "legitimate and routine." 

> Such corporate abuses of digital information technology, now rampant, go virtually unchecked. Elected politicians, afraid to offend their corporate benefactors, turn the other way while cynically offering assurances that all the unregulated activity is "good for the American consumer." 


-- 
Stewart Fist - writer and columnist
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