WE WANT INFORMATION They know practically everything about you except if you've been sleep

WE WANT INFORMATION

They know practically everything about you except if you've been sleeping
or you're awake. And it's all on computer. The worst thing is that
practically anybody can access it.

  It's called Information America. If you have a modem, a home computer
and can afford $95 an hour fees, you too can access Information America's
online computer database, crossindexing the Postal Service's National
Change of Address file (NCOA), major publisher and direct marketing
companies' client information, birth records, driver's license records,
phone books, voter registrations, records from up to 49 governmental
agencies, and more. Information America boasts up-to-date information on
over 111 million Americans, 80 million households and 61 million telephone
numbers.

  If you're not scared yet, you should be. Because complete strangers can
find out where you live, tracing you through extensive relocations even if
they have only a last name, or a state, an old address or telephone
number. They can find your unlisted telephone numbers, who you live with,
and gauge your income by the kind of residence you live in and your
locale. Ever declared bankruptcy, had your wages garnished, or been
involved in other legal entanglements? Do you own any real estate, or have
any corporate affiliations? Unless you live your life as carefully as
Thomas Pynchon, Information America will provide detailed information on
you and up to ten of your neighbors. It's anyone's one-stop surveillance
convenience.

  Over the past hvo decades, credit bureaus, telephone companies and
direct marketers in particular have collectively amassed complete consumer
profiles on over 150 million Americans. But for the most part, this
information has been used only to predict consumers' tuture buying habits,
or worse: to influence them, targehng only those consumers who might be
receptive to certain "messages." Direct marketers in particular live and
die by the reliability of their data-imagine how expensive it would be for
Greenpeace to send mailers to Rush Limbaugh fans.

  Gradually, within our consumer sphere, information about the people
doing the consumption has become the commodity. Marketers wanting to
create a list of overweight women can buy vital statistics from the
Department of Motor Vehicles. 1-800 and 1-900 numbers which advertise "Bad
Credit? No Credit? No Problem!" capture names addresses and telephone
numbers of callers; major financial institutions buy that information to
screen candidates for credit and loans, on the presumption that anybody
who'd call such a number is probably a bad


  REVIEW PEOPLE FINDER MULTITRACK allows you to review the status of each
of the searches you requested. You may choose to view the results of each
completed search at this time. Search results will be stored for seven
days from the day you requested the search. You may review the search
results at any time during the seven-day time period through the Review
People Finder MultiTrack option. Search results include a summary listing
of names that match the information entered (up to 300 names for
nationwide and up to 100 names for individual state searches). From the
summary, you may select individual profiles and neighbor listings.

  IA's clients are mostly lawyers and paralegals working at large legal
firms, but the FBI is also a major IA client. Television programs in the
60's and 70's which depicted an FBI "Big Brother" computer system scared
the public enough so that it and Congress have continually resisted
efforts by the FBI to implement such a system. In the mid 80's, for
example, Congress voted against the implementation of an FBI computer
system which would allow them to monitor telephone calls. Information
America is the perfect solution for the FBI's bureaucratic quandary.
Because of hindering regulations on the government, private sector
database stockpiling has outstripped governmental efforts. Moreover,
private sector information is constantl fresh-tested and updated through
marketing efforts. (ln fact, in 1984, the IRS suffered a public relations
disaster when they solicited demographic information from direct marketers
for the purpose of tracking down tax-cheats). As a result, an interesting
and lucrative symbiotic relationship has grown up between the government
and the private sector; Big Brother can circumvent privacy laws by farming
the work out.'

  IA has existed for at least three and a half years, but has remained
relatively unknown to the public. IA's low profile isn't surprising;
public backlash against Lotus' "MarketPlace" CD-ROM-which contained
marketing information on only a few million people at most-forced Lotus to
abandon its project altogether after having invested tens of thousands of
dollars in advertising alone. What Lotus was doing wasn't unusual; large
direct marketing firms like National Demographics & Lifestyles (NDL) have
been somewhat covertly marketing consumer names and information on CD-ROM
for years (with information such as how many telephones you have; the
approximate ages of your household's members; the gender of the household
head; the number and type of cars your household has; what the mortgage
value on your house is; estimated incomes for the heads of the household,
etc.) The difference was that Lotus was offering their CD-ROM commercially
so that anybody could, as the public claimed, have the power of "Big
Brother" at their fingertips. If the public knew about Information
America, knew that anyone could tap its eye-spy capabilities, the backlash
would be tremendous.

  To market its database services, IA seems to have adopted a grass-roots
kind of approach. IA employs liaisons in major metropolitan cities whose
job it is to research and contact prospective clients-lawyers, for
example. I am unaware of any advertising in specialized journals.

  We take for granted the existence of government-run databases which
contain even more detailed information on Americans than IA possesses.
Even so, those databases are considerably smaller, and what's more,
they're well-regulated: the agencies that run them accountable by law.
(While federal privacy laws forbid most government agencies from seizing
individuals' financial records, they do not prevent employers, state
agencies and other individuals from probing bank accounts, nor do they
protect medical records, personnel data, etc.). The potential credit
risk-one they might not know about. (So even if you just casually called,
you could end up financially blacklisted). Selling and gathering data is
as profitable a business as the marketing for which data like this is
used.

  Not until recently has information like this been commercially available
in a single database, specifically with law enforcement, private
investigators, bounty hunters and lawyers in mind. Information America is
the first accessible service to make use of previously collected data for
the express purpose of providing the up-to-date whereabouts and personal
profiles of as many Americans as possible. Infor mation America "whether
you are conducting a background check, looking for a witness, skip
tracing, or gathering information for court, [lnformation America] gives
you. . . a quick, easy method for gathering information on individuals
across the country. . . at the touch of a key."


  There are 19 main search-options available through IA, which fall into
three categories: Corporate, UCC, & Related Records; Nationwide Services;
and County & Court Records. (see figure 1 )

  The power of People Finder lies not only in its ability to tap various
large store-houses of data, but in its flexibility of search criteria.
People Finder is made up of four services: SKIP TRACER, TELEPHONE TRACKER,
PERSON LOCATOR, and PEOPLE FINDER MULTITRACK. (see figure 2)

  Depending on the information available, a People Finder profile may
include current address, telephone number, residence type, length of
residence, gender, date of birth, up to four household members and their
dates of birth, and a neighbor listing. (see figure 3)

  SKIP TRACER traces a person's moves or Verifies the current address when
all you have is an old address. You will enter the person's name, street
number, street name, and either the zip code or city/state. If your
subject is in IA's files, a profile will be displayed that includes the
address he moved to (or current address), phone number, length of
residence, and more. You may also request a list of ten of the person's
neighbors. A profile on the current resident at your subject's old address
and up to ten neighbors there may also be available. This gives you
several contacts to help you find your subject.

  TELEPHONE TRACKER tracks down the owner of a telephone number. You must
enter the phone number and either the area code or the city/state. If a
match is found, you may look at a profile of that individual/ residence
and a listing of up to ten neighbors.

  PERSON LOCATOR helps you locate a person when specific address
information is unavailable. Enter the person's name and indicate whether
you wish to conduct a search by city, state(s), zip or nationwide. Person
Locator will compile a list of names (up to 300 names for nationwide and
up to 100 names for individual state searches) that match the information
entered. When you find the right name, you may request a profile and
neighbor listing for that individual. (see figure5 4,5 & 6)

  PEOPLE FINDER MULTITRACK helps you locate multiple people during one
search. Search results are available the following business day. For each
of vour subjects, enter the name and indicate the geographic area you wish
to search-nationwide, multi-state, state, citv or zip. You may enter up to
25 names per search. Sign off the system and let Information America do
the work for you. The following business day, log on to Information
America and access the People Finder Menu by entering PF at the
Information America Beginning Menu. From the People Finder Menu, you may
view the results of People Finder MultiTrack by entering RR (Review People
Finder Mu1tiTrack). for abuse by a system like Information America-devoid
of any checks and balances-is spectacular. MoD-a group of self-styled
cyber-outlaws recently busted-has already demonstrated this to a small
extent when they easily penetrated Information America and used its
services to locate and harass people across the country. The same
technology advances which were supposed to make at-home shopping a
convenience and tailor marketing to your needs have now made surveilling
you cost-effective, accurate and as easy as touching a key.

  One of the least reported items to come out of the Iran/Contra
proceedings concerned Oliver North and his role with the Federal Emergency
Management Administration (FEMA)-the organization which cobrdinates relief
efforts across the United States during natural disasters. North had drawn
up FEMA contingency plans of a different sort: in the event of war in
Central America, the Constitution was to be suspended and FEMA was to
round up aliens (particularly Hispanics) and U.S. Citizens considered
"subversive," and intern them in Manzanar-like camps. Databases like
Information America would no doubt have been employed in locating the
whereabouts of these people. The importance of Information America isn't
what it can do for you; rather, what can be done with it fo you.


THE FUTURE IS NOW

And Information America is just the beginning. Just the tip of the cyberg.
Even if there are legitimate uses for stockpiling information-which is
questionable-there aren't adequate safeguards against illegitimate use.
It's dangerous enough for uncaring institutions to maintain digital
dossiers on us; even more dangerous for interested strangers to be able to
access them. And anybody who can follow on-line help files can navigate
Information America.

  The distinction between "cyberspace" and "the real world" is blurred,
and things that happen in the electronic realm are already impacting our
evervday lives. A battle is being waged in the workplace over the sanctitv
of inter-office electronic mail; prospective employers and insurance
companies are screening candidates' backgrounds electronically, often
making decisions based on errant data.(2) On the Internet-data highways
which approximate a "global village"-billions of bvtes of message traffic
(including mail) are routinely archived for later perusal. In the name of
terrorism, organized crime and the war against drugs, the FBI and FCC have
been introducing legislation which would encourage telecommunications
carriers to provide decrypted versions of privacy-enhanced communications
and ensure that improvements in telephone technology do not interfere with
the ability to secretly record conversations.(3) Even libraries are not
immune from the intrusive efforts of meme mongers; in the late 80's the
FBI quietlv asked university librarians across the United States to
maintain lists af patrons who checked out "subversive" books (they
refused).

  As our global community becomes more dependent on information, the
ability to control and subvert that information will spell Mastery. Crude
information brokerages between private investigators, insurance agents and
employees of the Social Security Administration, the IRS, DMV and the FBI
have already been uncovered.(4) The next step could be information
mercenaries-well-equipped cyber-rogues skilled in traversing the net and
stealing any information you can afford to buy. Ironically, the very
existence of these mercenaries may be our only buffer against the absolute
power of these information brokers.  [M2]

FOOT NOTES

(1) "FBl said to seek Compiled Lists for use in its Field
Investigations," DMNews; April 20, 1992
(2) "FBl Eavesdropping Challenged," The Washington Post,
February 17, 1992.
(3) 'Privacy for Sale:' Tales of Data Rape," San Francisco
Examiner, September 13, 1992.
(4) "lndictments of 'lnformation Brokers,"' The Privacy
Journal, January, 1992.