Hoarded at http://www.scn.org/newspeak Celebrating cutting edge advances in the Doublethink of the 90's Written by Wayne Grytting

Little Brothers

Citizens of Maryland may have woken up to a creative way their state Motor Vehicle Department has been raising funds. The MVD has been selling their computerized database of personal information to anyone with the money to access it. Now with only a computer and the aid of an "information broker" like CDB Infotek of Santa Ana, California, anyone can peruse any Maryland resident's age, weight, driving record, unlisted phone numbers, property deeds, court cases and medical conditions. Information brokers can give you access to public data from 48 states, although most are not as complete as the Tarheel state provides. Is this Big Brother at work? No, says Robert Mayer, chief information officer for the state of Maine. With electronic databases, "public records have become truly public." Just democracy in action. (WP 3/3)

Getting Your Priorities Straight

Officials in the state of Oregon have been planning for some time what to do in case of The Big One. Should the earthquake hit, Oregon has plans in place for putting the state's most important function back on-line. While many employees are busy with rescue work, others will have as their duty restoring video poker and the state lottery. "Keeping the games going after a natural disaster such as an earthquake or flood is important because video poker and other games generate $1 million a day in profits for the state," said David Hooper, a Lottery spokesman. "We're a sales organization," he said. "We make money for the state by selling our product. That's why it's important for the state that we are able to get back on our feet quickly." And that's why the Oregon State Lottery awarded $124,000 to Netplex, a private company, to design a plan to make sure gamblers do not miss a beat during any disaster. (AP 3/19)

The Pepsi Challenge

A cultural milestone of some sort was passed when 19 year old Mike Cameron was suspended for wearing a Pepsi shirt on "Coke Day" at his high school in Evans, Georgia. This heinous crime was described by principal Gloria Hamilton as being disrespectful towards visiting Coke executives and as "being disruptive and trying to destroy the school picture." The school picture in question consisted of the loyal student body lined up dressed in Coke's red and white colors to spell the word "Coke." (At least they spelled it right.) This long-standing tradition of having school pictures in the form of product names has come about as companies like Coke and Pepsi have been buying up exclusive rights to whole school districts. But rather than calling this "commercialization," Coke prefers, in the words of a spokesman named Ms. Howe, to describe the practice more creatively as "developing a partnership with the schools." (NYT 3/10, 3/16)

Precision Bombing

Do you have a baby on the way? Are you about to buy a house? While big government may know nothing about it, companies like Metromail do. Metromail is your "one-stop data provider," selling data on 103 million American citizens. They offer corporations information on credit ratings, buying preferences and legal entanglements, to name just a few categories. This all helps advertisers target their marketing campaigns, according to Brono Rost, a spokesperson for a data company called Exparian. More importantly, it helps consumers, says Rost, by "providing them with information they need." Expect to see more consumers lining up at their mailboxes to get all this sorely needed information. (WSJ 3/30)

Special thanks this issue to the eagle eyes of Maarten Ultee, James Baldwin and John Gear. To get on the mailing list, send all your personal data to wgrytt@blarg.net