Theos-Talk Archives (February 1998 Message tt00366)

Doss, you are absolutely right.  In this day of age anyone can get anyone's
e-mail address, residence, phone number, and there are computers designed to do
nothing but store private information about people.  However, the issue I have
unsuccessfully been trying to raise is not one of ability, but of *courtesy.*
Just because one is able to find an e-mail address is one thing.  Taking into
consideration how to approach the person behind that address with courtesy and
respect, or whether this person ought to be approached at all is quite
another.  Since I am old enough to remember Truman in the white house, I guess
most of the world must view me as an antiquated irrelevant old man with a lot
of strange ideas that don't fit in this world--concepts like appropriate
behavior, courtesy and professionalism.  Call me strange if you would like, but
if a stranger contacts me, I still appreciate the first contact to be in that
old fashioned custom called "an introduction."   Strangely, the people in
question are also near my age and consequently grew up with the same cultural
values as I did.  Could it be that like me, they also might appreciate having
their privacy respected?  I'm not saying that these people cannot be
approached, but that there used to be cultural norms about *how* a person is to
be approached.  I guess those days are gone.  I'm sorry for that because it
makes this planet that much less of a nice place.

jhe


M K Ramadoss wrote:

> In this day and age of computers and Internet, any time anyone posts a msg
> on a maillist like this or newsgroup, they cannot keep their e-mail address
> private. In addition anyone who has a telephone listed listing anywhere in
> the country can be remotely searched and the telephone number and address
> located. It is just like picking up the phone book and looking it up. The
> search now can give you all this and also a map to the address. If one owns
> a home or personal property, then it cannot be hidden either and you get
> the address even if you have a unlisted telephone. Recently I found out
> that in the public records of real estate listings, in addition you can
> retrieve a floor plan of you home floor by floor. If anyone is active in
> newsgroups one can look up all the messages one has posted and we can get a
> profile of the person. Some time ago a friend of mine had posted a queer
> msg on a local newsgroup and when I queried him tangentially, he was in a
> state of shock. In addition for a small fee on can use a commercial service
> which will get all kinds of further information. So no one should be
> surprised if they find that information they consider is private is no
> longer private due to the public availability of a lot of information.
>
> mkr
>