AITP of Southern New England

May 1998 Meeting

Privacy in the Computer Age: Wars and Skirmishes

Speaker: Robert Ellis Smith

The mass of computerized information stored about each of us continues to increase. In the broadening battlefront of competitive information gatherers, "data marts" and "data warehouses" represent the strategic weapons in an escalating arms race. What of the rights of individuals comprising this body of knowledge?

Would you like to know about the latest changes in telephone technology that will render as obsolete the whole idea of unlisted numbers? Would you like to know about the possibilities for tracking Internet usage that are unfamiliar even to sophisticated Net users?

This session will identify tactical weapons used on both sides of the privacy conflict, guide individuals in managing their own privacy, and provide some insight as to how information technology managers might affect policy at their respective organizations.

Robert Ellis Smith is a Providence-based journalist who draws on his training as an attorney to examine an individual's right to privacy. Since 1974, he has published "Privacy Journal", a monthly newsletter on privacy in the computer age.