Fame, Status, Power, Influence! Privacy?
Reclaiming anonymity in the 21st Century

By loc Al X

ID's     Public Records     Marketers and Demographers     Financial Information     Internet     loco Rant

Influence is attainable through fame, through status and power. Can we influence our sphere and protect our privacy, or must we sacrifice the one to achieve the other? Can I have my cake and eat it too?

Legend has it, the phrase "you can't have your cake and eat it too," comes from the lips of Marie Antoinette before her neck was slit by the French Revolution. She had celebrity status, power too, but her influence seems to have lagged somewhere between eating her cake and digesting it. Probably the guillotine cutting dessert a little short.

We've had a lot of revolutions against notorious tyrants, some of them more successful than others, some more justified in the hindsight of history than others. According to About.com, Marie Antoinette and King Louis XVI weren't completely at fault for the financial crisis that ravaged the second half of the 18th century in France. No one ever proved that she was guilty of treason, either, but she inevitably got the axe for it anyway, said the Web site. Whether we believe About.com or not, anyone who has ever read Alice in Wonderland knows that a little bad will from the powers that be can garner a death decree from the Queen of Hearts, justified or not.

It is virtually impossible to remain anonymous in the media age. One of the greatest personal challenges of the 21^st Century will be finding a way to slip through the cracks. We are constantly monitored by demographers, marketers and corporations. Credit bureaus, financial institutions, government agencies, law enforcement agencies, employers and landlords have access to more information about us than we may be aware of. Much of our private information is considered public information.

The Problem of reclaiming our privacy is convoluted because we must divulge personal information in order to legally partake of numerous privileges including driving, using credit, working, acquiring an education, getting married, receiving medical care, telephone, internet and cable service. Many of these privileges feel like necessities. As a result, our privacy is constantly compromised in order to function in society.

Identification Cards

Although a state issued photo identification card is not required by Colorado law it is "highly recommended," says Officer Green at Denver’s District 6 police department. Even if you don’t drive, an ID is required for age verification at bars and clubs, for tobacco and for liquor purchases. An identification card includes a photo, a name, birth date, physical statistics, address, and medical information. The information in and of its self is not particularly intrusive; however, recent abuses by state governments in the confidentiality of the data have made the magnetic card a tracking device.

The Colorado Department of Motor Vehicles has sold driver’s license information to feed numerous databases including Image Data Inc. "established at the behest of the U.S. Secret Service," says Mike Krause of the Independence Institute. The U.S. Secret Service "wants to have a personal file on everyone in the country, for its "True ID" program," continues Krause.

Sandra Lowman, Assistant to the Director at the Department of Motor Vehicles, pointed out that Senate Bill 00-11 limits the availability of "information relating to the identification of persons." It restricts direct marketers and media agencies from accessing driver’s license information. The bill also allows for a number of exceptions to the restrictions, including making the information available "in research activities and producing statistical reports, so long as the personal information is not published, redisclosed or used to contact individuals."

This information is available without the consent of the license holder. If the state has obtained "the express consent of the person to whom such personal information pertains," then the info is available "in bulk distribution for surveys, marketing or solicitations." So watch what you sign.

According to a press release on SB 00-11, driver’s license information is still available to "any licensed private investigative agency or licensed security service for allowable uses under the law." There is a footnote associated with release of data to a P.I. "The reference to Private Investigator will be struck from our Agreement forms and the Requester Release form."

Senate Bill 99-174, passed in 1999, prohibits "the department from selling or releasing photographs, other images, fingerprints, or social security numbers; except, the act allows release of "such information to a criminal justice agency and the release of images to a news agency." The bill adds that anyone who requests confidentiality of their records be given "a list of persons to whom information is released," and "requires the custodian of any records to require the person requesting release of the information to show identification." So, although the Department of Motor Vehicles will not comply if asked to keep records confidential, they will tell you who has looked at your records if you ask. What a relief it is to know that the state won't give anyone an image in your likeness, just all of your vital statistics.

The House of Representatives undermined the Senate's 1999 bill by passing House Bill 99-1293, which requires the Department of Revenue to establish an electronic transfer system to sell bulk quantities of information not otherwise protected to "primary users and vendors." The legislation requires your personal information be sold both to "primary users" (such as automobile insurance companies, which use the information for their own purposes) and to companies which re-sell the information to other companies.

The companies must enter into a contract with the Department of Revenue, disclosing the purpose for which the information is being collected and to pay a fee, applied to the highway users fund of Colorado. The stated purpose of the bill is to combat fraud, the same reason data was sold to companies such as Image Data Inc., which ignited the nationally publicized controversy in 1999. The state was also required to publish the names of companies to which driver's license data was sold on December 31, 1999. The requirement to release the names of contracts entered into was subsequently repealed in July of 2000.

According to SB 00-11, which became active June 1, 2000, personal information in motor vehicle records will no longer be open record in compliance with an U.S. Supreme Court ruling. The courts upheld the Driver's Privacy Protection Act of 1994 supporting Congress’ authority to protect an individual's personal information. The act prohibits state DMV's from disclosing personal information about drivers without the express written consent of the driver. Unfortunately, the case does not seem to have had an impact on Colorado's policy of selling data to research companies. Apparently because authority is not synonymous with responsibility.

What you can do:

Call the Department of Revenue and ask for the list of contracts. According to Lowman, there are hundreds of them. Write letters to your representative in the House opposing the release of information to research companies.

View a list of Colorado's House members.

Phone numbers in Colorado:

Director's Citizen Complaint Hotline - 303.866.4622

Office of Policy Analysis and Financial Services - 303.866.3411

Office of the Executive Director - 303.866.3091

File a request with the DMV to keep your information confidential. Demand to see the Requestor Release and Information Request forms filed by anyone who has looked at your records and follow through by calling those companies and people to learn why they have your information and to keep tabs on them the same way they are keeping tabs on you. If nothing else, letting these entities know that you are aware of the trespass will help to keep them honest.

Public Records

I recently returned from my honeymoon to a letter from a mortgage company with the subject line- Congratulations newlyweds. I was bewildered that they knew I'd recently married and decided to investigate the paper trail. My first assumption was that the county sold my marriage license information. The truth is less capitalist. Marriage licenses are public records open to anyone who is interested, free of charge. The data can be found online or at the courthouse by anyone who has the time to look. The list of city databases available online follows:

• Building Inspection Status
• Business Personal Property Records
• Child Adoption
• Civil Court Case Records
• Denver Historic Properties
• Denver Public Library Catalog
• Denver Traffic Counts
• DIA Flight Arrivals/Departures
• Disadvantaged Business Enterprises
• Events in Denver
• Hazardous Materials (Tier Two Reports)
• Real Property Records
• Registered Neighborhood Organizations
• Restaurant Health Inspection Reporting Systems
• Subdivisions and Land Surveys
• Birth, death, marriage and divorce records are available at the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment.

According to Vern Moore of Rocky Mountain Mortgage Specialists, the man who sent the "Congratulations Newlyweds" letter, the Department of Vital Records keeps a database of public information from marriage licenses to property records. Friendly and forthright, he mentioned that most genealogy research is done thanks to the availability of these public records. Although he couldn't recall the exact name of the company that collected the marriage license data for him, he was able to remember that they were located at Cherry Creek Drive North, "something research" he said.

In the phone book, only one company matched these specifications. BBC Research was the only research company on said street. My contact at BBC requested to remain anonymous. The contact denied knowing of any research the company had done into marriage licenses, although s/he did admit that BBC could have done so. The source stated that BBC had used property records to research changes in housing values. The records were not effective for the research, and instead, BBC purchased census data to complete the project. The contact added, census data is free, but the government will sell the information in database format in order to expedite searches.

"Aggregated data is no major stink," said the source, "but with computers... using enough filters, it is possible to attribute a record to an individual." Aggregated data is statistical information with the identifying characteristics of individuals removed. The census bureau will release aggregated data narrowed down to a single city block, making it easy to peruse the data with database queries. S/he noted that although the short form of the census asked little information, the long form was particularly intrusive. The aggregated information from the most recent census is online at www.census.gov.

Some market research companies are hired by state and federal agencies. The agencies, in turn, provide the research company the information it needs to conduct the investigation. Sundel Research was hired to research the state Medicaid system and was provided samples to call by the agency, says the founder of Sundel Research. He does not want to be named or quoted because his privacy is important to him. He notes that Sundel will never sell or give the names of its subjects away. "Confidentiality is key to the company," he says, "companies can't pry information from us." Sundel provides its clients aggregated statistics only. It is against the company's "canon of ethics," to divulge an individual's vital statistics. When asked if he believed a judge could court order his company to release information he said, "judges can't do that because of the importance of research in this country."

There are still other ways to get information on people through public records. The Department of Motor Vehicles will run a search on a license plate number for anyone who stops in. According to Lowman, license plate and automobile registration searches are also regulated now. That is true to some degree. The following is a quote from instructions distributed to DMV employees detailing protocol for dealing with the Senate Bill 00-11. "The customer must come to Pierce Street — Titles Section to obtain bond searches. The only way you can do a search at the County now is by the plate number. When you are submitted the VIN number for a bond/title search, you cannot do them."

The police department will provide arrest reports based on a date and a name for a small fee. Employers and landlords can inspect their applicant's criminal records and make a clean record a prerequisite for approval. Records Technician for the Glendale Police Department Mike Simpson says the police recommend that property managers perform criminal background checks on prospective tenants for the safety of other tenants. He adds, the records of sex offenders are open to the public so concerned citizens may peruse for a neighbor's offenses.

What you can do:

Despite the importance of research and the value of a free press, as private citizens we are reminded daily of the abuses indiscriminate media agencies make with public records when they publish details violating private information. We must inevitably be discriminating about the content we will support. Private citizens also have the power to utilize media outlets for causes we believe in and the right to speak out for issues worth concern. Sometimes a tip via fax, phone, or email to a news agency can get an enlightening idea into the world. Some content producers are simply desperate for good ideas and would appreciate a little help.

As a reporter, I'm constantly reminded that public records are open for my own protection. They are also important so that another may protect his/herself from me. Access to information, whether it be tacked on a billboard, distributed in a publication, displayed in a gallery, or documented on a screen is vital and valuable. The availability of this information functions as a check in the system of balances. Each of us has the right to investigate the history of another who has, or may in the future, harm or defraud us. The people with whom we sign contracts and do business with have a history which will often reveal their future actions along with their present intentions. We can learn about the history of the property we plan to buy, the neighborhood we move into, and the restaurant we want to eat at thanks to the availability of public records.

The Federal Privacy Act of 1974 offers controls on the use of personal information by individuals, the media, or by federal agencies. It sets restrictions on the exchange of personal data between agencies, establishes limitations for the governmental use of social security numbers and opposes the issuance of national identification numbers. Federal laws now require that SSNs be used in the administration of some programs, including the federal personal income tax program; the Supplemental Security Income (SSI), Medicaid, Food Stamp, student loans, and Child Support Enforcement programs; and state commercial driver licensing programs. Because your income is taxable, some financial institutions and employers can also request your social security number. Any other use of your SSN for identification, by a university for instance, is not permitted under federal law. You have the right to refuse giving out your SSN in most retail and/or commercial situations. No federal law, however, imposes broad restrictions on businesses' and state and local governments' use of SSNs when that use is unrelated to a specific federal requirement.

The Federal Privacy Act also gives individuals the right to view any documents collected on them by an institution through the freedom of information act - FOIA - for the cost of copying the documents. Sample letter requesting to see documents invoking FOIA.

Marketers and Demographers

Most of the time, says the founder of Sundel Research, his company does market research to discern a population's awareness of ads, and the market penetration of products in a population. For this type of research, it is standard to randomly generate telephone numbers by adding four tossup numbers to an area prefix. He asserts that it is critical to distinguish market research companies such as Sundel, from telemarketing companies. Most market research companies provide a necessary service for business orientation models and operate ethically. Even some legitimate telemarketers can sell private information, he adds.

BBC Research does not usually sell the names and records it procures, but rather, is paid to use the data and put together analyses based on their findings. Rather than putting together the databases themselves, they usually purchase the data from other companies such as Info USA, SSI and Polk Research. These companies put their databases together through numerous sources from public records to product registration cards, from the phonebook to college alumni records. Often, the demographic sample is projected rather than actual information and much of the data is therefore inaccurate.

From a small bit of information, such as a graduation date from college, a name and a phone number, the research company will project a variety of demographic statistics such as age, political view, sex, etc... These statistical projections are then sold for further research. Often times, stated my contact, BBC will call the people whose data they purchased and learn the subject doesn't fit the demographic he or she had been assigned to after all.

Media agencies also have a variety of ways to learn the demographic range of their audience. According to Don Howell, General Manager of Clear Channel Broadcasting in Denver statistics on radio listening nationwide are collected by a company called Arbitron who calls homes and asks residents to install cards in their radios for a week. The resulting 'diary' is sold to radio stations and advertisers. Arbitron sends out diaries proportional to a population, and, since the placement is random, the statistics are weighted to account for a larger sample. Just under 3,000 people represent the population of Denver, says Howell, and often there are shifts in samples because of placement. The television networks use a similar system called the Nielson Ratings.

What you can do:

Lie. Mislead surveyors so demographic databases become unusable depositories of garbage. After all, isn't it unnerving to learn that our personal data is compiled from all the little times we slip and give a little of ourselves away? The notion that the little clues about the things I have, want and do are sold and developed between companies; and on top of it all, that the statistics applied to me are actually inaccurate projections disturbs me. However, these inaccuracies could, in fact, be our weapon to influence the demographic infrastructure operating around us.

Fill out product registration cards with believable, inaccurate vitals. Swing the stats to control the free market economy. Manipulate the business orientation model so that it is built around an unstable nucleus. Let the companies know that the biggest spender in America is not a teenage girl but a middle-aged philosopher hermit. Collect the vital statistics of every company that tries to collect data on you. Build your own database. Give, or sell their information to civil rights groups, libertarian, and anarchist organizations. If none of these organizations want to challenge the market researchers, maybe they'll be able to use one of them to do some canvassing on public opinion.

If you don't want to lie, try loading the basket. Use public opinion to sway a vote, a policy, an institution. Polls seem to persuade politicians, companies and the media. Use market research to make changes on the infrastructure. Give your opinion by speaking out. Sign petitions for causes that you believe in, call, write emails and letters to officials. Contact your local media outlets when you want them to notice something you find newsworthy. Give them your opinion without giving away your personal information. Changes are often made by a vocal minority. Take advantage of that power. Get the major media believing that the vast majority of America's population listens to experimental independent rock and reads hybridmagazine.com.

Financial Information

Credit grantors and landlords use three major credit bureaus for inquiries: Trans Union, Experian and Equifax. Their databases are formed out of applications we fill out for jobs, credit cards and loans. Banks give and/or sell our financial information both to bureaus and directly to marketers. Marketers use the credit bureaus to learn our financial information.

Inquiries into our credit history are done more often than most of us realize. It's not unusual to have over a dozen unsolicited inquiries into one's credit in a single year. Every time a pre-approved credit card or loan comes our way it has been checked. "The more inquiries you have, the less credit you can get and the higher your rate," says Jesse Hernandez, District Counseling Manager for Consumer Credit Counseling Services of Greater Denver, part of a national non-profit foundation. Every time an inquiry is made, it represents potential debt. "An inquiry can hurt you for as long as six months," and all the way up to two years.

Inquiries hurt your FICO score, named for Fair Isaac Co. Sometimes your FICO is the only thing a mortgage company wants to see. Inactive accounts bring down your FICO, especially if these accounts have high spending limits. Often, erroneous credit inquiries or accounts for people with a name or social security number similar to yours will show up on your credit record, causing damage without your knowing it. "So often there is additional, inaccurate, or surprising credit on your record… An unpaid parking ticket or video store balance can tarnish your rating if it goes to collection," says Wendi Jackson, former Credit Analyst for Credit Verifiers, Inc.

The information on a credit report includes salary, social security number, address and a number of identifying characteristics. Our employers add our information to the database as a service to us, says Hernandez. It is important for our employers to update the bureaus for the sake of the loans we apply for. We are in a double bind every time we apply for credit because we are hurting our own credit record and giving away our financial information to third parties. Most Americans are dependant on credit and yet it is so delicate. Every late payment makes its way to our rating; our applications damage it and our purchases weight it but we need more to get more.

What you can do:

There is a way to stop unsolicited inquiries. A single phone number allows you to request that your name be removed from information provided to solicitors by all three major credit reporting agencies- 1.888.567.8688.

Under Colorado law, consumers are entitled to one free copy per year from each of the three credit bureaus. The report you receive includes everything except your FICO. According to the Fair Credit Act, "credit scoring models are complex." Basically we’re not bright enough to handle it. The number to get your credit report from each bureau follows:

Trans Union 1.800.216.1102 - Takes around 4 days to receive.

Equifax 1.800.216.1102 - Takes around 2 days to receive.

Experian 1.888.397.3742 - Takes around 2 weeks to receive.

"Close any accounts you don't use and check your report to make sure all of the credit on it is actually yours," says Jackson. Pay off all the old blemishes that are haunting you and dispute erroneous charges and accounts. Pay your bills on time and pay off as much as you can. Also, watch for fraud and "add a page to your report to explain yourself," says Hernandez. "You can explain that you've just gone through a divorce," for example, he says. Sometimes a company will agree to remove a blemish from your report if you agree to pay off the old debt.

New legislation restricts the exchange of private information. Under the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, a financial institution must disclose its privacy policy when a consumer signs on as a customer and at least once a year thereafter. Financial institutions must give consumers the chance to block the sharing of "non-public" information, including transaction and customer experience data such as account balances, with third-party marketers. The new law also prohibits financial institutions from sharing or selling account numbers to outside marketers. Make sure you request that your financial institution keep your information private and review their privacy policy annually.

Internet

When browsing online we make a number of pieces of information available to the hosts of the site we are visiting. Cookies are text files deposited on your hard drive that act as tags to mark where you've been. Cookies not only tag us for our return to a site, they also offer other sites a history of our surfing. A persistent cookie stays on your system until its expiration date, no later than 2038. A "session" cookie expires in a short time interval. This type of cookie is used for shopping carts, searches, and other short-term uses. Sites track every click on every link we visit from banner ads to internal links. The data is collected and sold to other companies and used in-house to study habits and demographic statistics.

A web page can use code to detect what type of system you are running, what plugins you have in your hard drive, and snoop through a number of your hard drive's folders to query megs of data in order to interact efficiently.

Many of us use Web-based email accounts while at work to bypass our company logs. If these email services allow you to receive HTML based messages in addition to text, using them will leave a telltale footprint in your company's Web server - the IP address of your machine on the company's logs. If a company tracks web surfing, all Web mail messages get tracked as well.

Often users believe that Web-based accounts are anonymous identities. Actually accounts such as Hotmail display the sender's Internet Service Provider (ISP) in the header so your Internet Protocol (IP) address - your computer's address on the Internet - can often be determined.

Under current law, law enforcement can easily access electronic data, often without a warrant. The Federal Bureau of Investigation uses Internet wiretapping programs such as "Carnivore" to snoop through data they believe may have dangerous or subversive content. There are very few restrictions on the availability of soft copy information to enforcement officials.

According to the American Civil Liberties Union the phone numbers of the people we call, our email messages, and our electronic documents are not private. "Under current Federal law, law enforcement can easily access this kind of information through electronic surveillance, sacrificing the personal privacy of innocent people." Our electronic privacy is highly vulnerable to unwarranted search and seizure under the current policies.

I was cruelly reminded of that fact when I had a hard-drive crash. My warranty covered replacement, meaning that all of the data stuck in my old drive would be confiscated and stored in a warehouse indefinitely. If any enforcement agency had the desire to search through my hard drive all they would have to do is follow the paper trail to my old drive. No one would ever need to enter my house and confront me to get the data. The concept disturbed me so deeply that I confronted the repairman with an argument.

My feeling is that I had paid for both the original hard drive and the warranty. Basically, the volume of personal information I had on my hard drive was not only priceless, it was sensitive and confidential. He refused to replace the drive unless I handed over the old one, so, as an added precaution, I slammed the drive against the table before turning it over, just in case. The repairman mentioned that I could request to purchase my drive back from the manufacturer if I was still concerned.

What you can do:

Use text only Web-based mail such as Pine, Elm or Mutt for 'anonymous' accounts. There are several services such as Anonymizer.com that offer members free surfing protection that prevents sites from collecting cookies and other forms of information about your browsing habits. For added security, type URLs into your location bar rather then following links to minimize click tracking.

You can keep your browser from accepting persistent cookies, or ask to be prompted when a site attempts to drop one on you. In Internet Explorer go to "Tools," then "Internet Options." Find the "Security" tab then choose "Custom Level." Now scroll down until you see:

Cookies

Allow cookies that are stored on your computer.
Disable
Enable
Prompt

Choose your favorite and click OK, twice.

For Netscape go to "Communicator," "Tools," then "Security Info." Click on "Navigator" and look for

Certificate to identify you to a web site:

Ask Every Time Select Automatically

Choose "Ask Every Time."

A number of bills are currently on the floor or at subcommittees in congress such as the Online Privacy Protection Act. Check in with the ACLU, the Platform for Privacy Preferences (P3P) Project and the Center for Democracy and Technology. Keep track of legislation and contact your representatives to voice your stance.

As a result of the Internet Growth and Development Act - H.R. 1685 companies are required to post and comply with privacy policies on the Web. Look for the data collection and disclosure policies of the sites you visit. Many sites will post this information up front. Sometimes it takes a little digging.

The ACLU is hard at work tracking legislation. "To better protect individual privacy, Rep. Charles Canady (R-FL) has introduced the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, H.R. 5018." The ACLU is also pursuing other courses for the protection of our civil liberties on the Internet. "In a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request sent today (July 14, 2000) to the FBI, the ACLU is seeking all agency records related to the government e-mail "cybersnoop" programs dubbed Carnivore, Omnivore and Etherpeek, including "letters, correspondence, tape recordings, notes, data, memoranda, email, computer source and object code, technical manuals, [and] technical specifications."

Rant

Paranoids raving over the indiscriminating tentacles of the faceless enemy do not make a revolution. Revolution is not fighting but moving, not overthrowing, but influencing - cyclic and progressive. Some systems flourish on cooperation, some on manipulation. The system at the helm of the good ship America is harvesting product to feed the gross domestic product. It is an independent entity with a fanatical devotion to the economy, its identity and its destiny is inextricably bound to the economy it serves, feeds, and consumes. It is a rather indiscrimanate creature which most Americans barter with on occasion. Jabba the Hut comes to mind. We take counsel from it and receive pittance from it. Each of us in our own way carries on a relationship with this creature, some apathetically, others religiously.

The brain of Jabba is a database swelling against its skull, perverting it like a tumor that has possessed it with statistics. Jabba has several heads, his identities range in persuasion from corporations with demographics for brains to political parties run by constituencies. Polls, surveys, studies, and censi are its matrix of gray matter. Our relationship with it is valuable to us because it is a network for sales and distribution. It's Jabba's network that we value. And it is Jabba's network that has influence on our consumerism, our education system, our infrastructure and our social policies.

It has power as long as it has access to us. Access to things is all we really need. Why own a person when you can simply have access to their skills, their money, and always know where to find them. You must disclose your information to the database in order to have your basic necessities, luxuries and rights. That is the result of a manipulative system at work over our lives.

Paranoia is delusional narcissism based on the fear that someone is after you. But Jabba is not after your individuality, it is after aggregated data derived by number crunching and could care less about your name or identity. To protect your personal information is to sabotage the matrix and oppose a system based on manipulation. Of course, if you oppose Jabba, it will find a way to undermine you by discrediting you, or taking away your access.

America is fundamental about the inacceptibility of certain taboos in popular culture. Our private lives can interfere with our credibility if we live a lifestyle that challenges society's mores. As a result, many Americans live in fear or oppress their desires because they know their passions, interests or indulgences could destroy their careers, their reputations or their status in the community. Any little piece of smut can come back to haunt us in our moment of greatest triumph. We must be very careful about every dust clod under the bed, because anyone can find it and ruin us.

There are safeguards for our privacy to be aware of, and to take advantage of. There is also litigation in the works that jeopardizes our rights. In this new media age, we have a responsibility to fight for the establishment of a system that is fair and safe today and in the future. A bad law is more difficult to change than it is to pass. The same goes for a righteous one, so keep a watchful eye.

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