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Privacy, 101 Lecture IV

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                      PRIVACY 101, LECTURE IV
Sender: owner-privacy101@c2.org
Precedence: bulk

                   LOCATIONAL INFORMATION RISKS

Greetings,

We're back in the saddle again.  We will quickly follow this 
lecture with Lecture V, Financial Information Risks.  After that, 
we will offer a lecture that covers health, lifestyle, political 
and miscellaneous information risks.  Previously, we had intended 
to do these as separate lectures, but we think we should move on 
to the more meaty "technique" lectures.
 
Sandy Sandfort
Duncan Frissell

November 1994

(c) 1994, Frissell and Sandfort
          332 Bleecker St., #F-34
          New York, NY 10014  USA

    Permission is hereby granted to reproduce and distribute
    any or all of "Privacy 101" provided this statement and
    the above copyright notice and address are included.

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Your enemies can do you a lot of indirect damage.  They can loot 
your bank accounts or slander your name.  But to do you the very 
worst harm--take away your freedom or even kill you--they need to 
be able to lay their hands on you.  And to do that, they need to 
know where you are.  Yet every day, most people willingly give 
out information about where they live, work, go to school, eat, 
drink and (presumably) be merry.  With that sort of information 
about you, anybody who wants to grab you, can.  Why do we expose 
ourselves to such risks?  Here are some reasons why most people 
give out location information:  

*	What risk?  This is Clinton's tolerant, liberal America.  
        What do we Branch Davidians have to fear?  (Or fill in 
        the blanks with your own choices of era, country, and 
        minority.)  

*	I don't give out that sort of information ... except to the    
        DMV, the census taker, the phone book, the paper boy, the    
        banker, the butcher, the baker, the candlestick maker, rich    
        man, poor man, beggerman, thief, doctor, lawyer, Indian 
        chief.  (How many people have you given personal location 
        information to in the last month?)  

*	It can't be avoided.  (Well, we'll just see about that 
        later    on in this lecture series.)  

What are the various sorts of location risks we run?  To answer 
this question, let's look at three different types of risk you 
run when you tell people where you are.

                          Physical Risks

HOME--There's no place like it.  But it is where you spend half 
your time; often in your most vulnerable states--asleep, in the 
shower, relaxed in front of the TV with your guard down.  It is 
also where you keep the things most dear to you--your jewelry, 
your personal records, your spouse, your kids.  All these are at 
risk if the wrong people know where you live.  

WORK--Not only do you spend nearly a third of your time at work, 
it is usually the major contributor to your financial well being. 
Enemies who know where you work can threaten your livelihood with 
garnishment, slander, harassment, etc.  

                        Informational Risks

SHOPPING--There are even location information risks associated 
with shopping.  Where you shop and (by inference) what you buy 
tells a great deal about you and your lifestyle.  We'll discuss 
lifestyle risks in more detail in a later lecture, but for now, 
do you really want your enemies to know how often you go to the 
liquor store?  

MEDICAL TREATMENT--If you tell people where you go for medical 
treatment (physical and mental), you are also telling them where 
they can find out some of the most personal information about 
you.  What risk might that mean in, say, a future law suit?  
Let's see what difference.

Jurisdictional Risks

CHOICE OF LAW--What's right and what's wrong.  It used to be easy 
to tell but in a bureaucratic world right and wrong depend on 
where you are.  What's wrong in Peoria may be right in Singapore 
and vice versa.  Where you are determines many things about your 
legal relationships.  It is wise for you to control your legal 
location.

Taxes that one owes depend on legal residence as well as 
"presence in the jurisdiction."  Many bureaucratic regulations 
don't apply to "visitors" but only to residents of a given 
jurisdiction.  

PROCEDURAL JURISDICTION--Obviously it is harder to arrest or sue 
those in other geographic areas or those whose exact location is 
unknown.  Letting others know where you are can be a major legal 
hazard.  Even if locational ambiguity does not offer an absolute 
legal bar to lawsuits or prosecutions, it can put a *practical 
barrier* in the way of such actions against you.

                        Modern Life

Luckily, as we shall see in the practical lectures, modern 
privacy techniques make it easier than ever to disguise your 
actual location and to carry on your normal affairs "from 
anywhere to anywhere" on earth.  We will demonstrate how to be 
"legally absent" from a jurisdiction in which you are physically 
present and show you how to be virtually present in a 
jurisdiction from which you are actually and legally absent.

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The "Privacy 101" seminar by Duncan Frissell and Sandy
Sandfort is digested and available on the WWW.

To reach the WWW digest, point your browser at
http://www.iquest.com/~fairgate/privacy/index.htm.