>To: declan_at_vorlon.mit.edu
>Subject: Sprint PCS WAP browsers leave phone numbers with websites
>From: Jered J Floyd <jered_at_mit.edu>
>Date: 08 Mar 2000 09:31:29 -0500
>
>
>Fun privacy issue.
>
>--Jered
>
>http://www.theregister.co.uk/000308-000011.html
>
>Telco caught sending users' phone nos. to Web sites
>
>US telco Sprint PCS was exposed this week for breaking the unwritten
>rules of Net privacy. According to a report in the San Francisco
>Chronicle, when users of Sprint's new wireless data service call up a
>Web site, their cellphone numbers are embedded in the http requests.
>
>This allows Web sites to work out the identities of Sprint visitors or
>at least track individuals' use of their sites. That's against the
>grain: surfers generally prefer to remain incognito unless, of course,
>they want to buy something.
>
>Sprint's defence is that users should be used to this kind of thing by
>now, thanks to cookies. But while cookies can be used to track
>individual Web site visitors, users can set their browsers to prevent
>their use. And cookies don't provide a phone number a sales rep can
>use to cold call the cellphone owner. Either that or the user can be
>spammed using SMS text messages. [...]
************
Date: Wed, 08 Mar 2000 09:42:19 -0600
To: declan_at_well.com
From: "Matthew G. Saroff" <msaroff_at_pobox.com>
Subject: Re: FC: American Medical Association wants masturbation GIF
yanked
The AMA doesn't have a leg to stand on. I would refer Mr. Hayden to
Pillsbury v, Goldstein, where Al Goldstein, the publisher of Scrfew
magazine, had a cartoon of Mr. and Mrs. Poppin' Fresh in flagrante delecto.
The Supreme Court has carved out an exception for parody regarding
trademarks, etc. and this falls in the category.
--
Matthew Saroff
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Received on Mar 08 2000
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