Theos-Talk Archives (February 1998 Message tt00367)

Jerry: Some fundamental things dont change with time. Even when I approach
someone whom I don't know, I would try to tell them what I am doing and what
I am looking for. Call it courtesy or whatever. Such an approach usually
ends up with the other party being responsive. But however, in spite of this
there is no response then nothing can be done.

...doss


At 11:33 AM 2/24/98 -0800, you wrote:
>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
>