[LINK] Number One Privacy Debacle

[Karl Auer]

On Thu, 2006-10-19 at 14:50 +1000, Marghanita da Cruz wrote:
> Karl Auer wrote:
> > This was Number One in the Privacy Debacle Hall of Fame in 2003:
> > 
> > 1. The creation of the Social Security Number:
>  
> In Australia, it was probably the Golf Link Project, where Golf Clubs
> handed over their member details to Citibank, who was funding the Online
> Golf Handicap database who then wrote to all handicapped golfers, 
> offering them a combined handicap access
> card/credit card in return. You have to admire the Ingenuity!

Why would you say that, Marghanita?

The trivial case of a few golf clubs and a bank abusing a few people's
privacy rights dwindles almost into insignificance beside the American
Social Security Number system.

The point was that the Australian government is hell-bent on making
exactly the same mistake.

Except that it wasn't a mistake, of course - it was deliberate from the
get-go. Just like ours.


Regards, K.

-- 
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Karl Auer (kauer at biplane.com.au)                   +61-2-64957160 (h)
http://www.biplane.com.au/~kauer/                  +61-428-957160 (mob)