On Mon, 13 Nov 1995 18:49:43 -0500 Mario Rups said: >Poster: Carl Reimann <[log in to unmask]> > >>Subject: iaf.net - what's the beef? > >The beef is that the addresses (with place & snailmail address of employer, >or at any rate of account) were gathered without consent or even >notification. So what? Even though you don't use a sig with that info as many of us do, the "place of employment" is easily figured out from brook.edu, and from public sources. >find us (yes, I know, one can look this sort of thing up, too, but I don't >really like the idea of making it *easy* for a bloody-minded listmember Is this paranoia? Or what? Why should you worry about members of lists? If running a list is that risky, why do so many of us do it? >Even if the names@addresses are taken from reviews, what this means is that >the only way you can keep from this sort of public exposure (as it were; >I'm overstating slightly, but, then, I'm just the tiniest tad irritated >about this whole thing) is never to join a list and never to post to a >list, which seems to me a bit stifling. Joining a list and/or posting does >NOT imply consent to be made part of someone's public database in the way >IAF has done. Come on, Mario....posting to a list is much like writing a letter to the editor of the local paper, or a professional journal. Those too let thousands of folks know who you are, what you think, and so forth. >as I've said above, and you know ahead of time about the directory in the >first place. With the phone company, it's open and aboveboard and >voluntary and you know about it. With IAF, it comes as a complete >surprise, and you have to go to extra trouble to undo what they've done. It is only a complete surprise because it is new. And if you object to this do you object to spiders like lycos.com grabbing info on all your web pages? What will I learn if I search Mario Rups on lycos? Maybe I'll just find you in a campus directory..... >I fully agree that it's a good service. However, being part of that >service should be voluntary, not unwitting. If I hadn't been on this list, >I'd possibly never have known about IAF and my inclusion in their db, and >that strikes me as not being *right*. Once again, it is new. All the folks on commercial providers are very familiar with the concept of a searchable database....and our directories are on the web....and if some don't know it, I just can't get excited about it. > >Yes, but those people with whom you correspond can legitimately *ask* you >where you work. Do you really think that ANYone who has a little research skill can't find that out even if you NEVER post to the web? Give cops, private eyes, etc, etc, a bit more credit than that..... cyclops Dan Lester, Network Information Coordinator Albertsons Library, Boise State University, Boise, Idaho 83725 USA [log in to unmask] http://cyclops.idbsu.edu/ How can one fool make another wise? Kansas, "No One Together," 1979