USD Magazine, Summer-Fall 1993

very day, we unwittingly par– ticipate in an invasion of pri– vacy-our own. In what seem to be innocent transactions on the telephone, at the gro– cery store and at the post office, for example, we give out information that can and will be used against us. New

services and technologies have intro– duced a higher level of convenience into our lives; however, the price we pay for this convenience is often our own priva– cy. • Flipping through a mail-order cata– log in your family room, you see the jacket you've been looking for, and it's on sale. You pick up your cordless phone, call in the order using your Mas– terCard number, and the jacket is soon on its way. • You run into the grocery store to pick up a few things for dinner. Your grocery club member card is swept through the machine at the check-out stand, you authorize the electronic debit from your checking account and head home to start cooking. • You're getting ready to move. The first thing on your checklist is to pick up the change-of-address packet from the post office-a change-of-address card that you file with the Postal Service as well as a packet of similar cards that you mail to companies and people you want to notify. For a limited time, the Postal Service will forward mail from your old to your new address, ensuring that you don't miss anything. All perfectly innocent, you say? More than 35 percent of households use cordless phones, says Beth Givens, pro– ject director of the Privacy Rights Clear– inghouse at USD, yet few people are aware that their conversations are acces– sible to anyone with a radio scanner who is within one mile of their house. If you are talking on a cellular phone, the reach with an advanced scanner is 15 to 20 miles. Though chances are unlikely that someone will be monitoring your calls, they can pick up information acci-

dentally, so it's wise to avoid giving out financial information over a cordless or cellular phone, Givens says. With your name, credit card number and expiration date, she says, "they would have all they need to assume your identity and start spending your money." When you use your grocery store member card at the check-out stand, your name and address are stored elec– tronically along with a record of every– thing you just bought. This information can be used by the grocery store itself or it can be sold, for instance, to a soft drink company that wants to send a coupon to everyone using a competing brand. The Postal Service makes its change– of-address lists available to direct mail companies. That's one reason you might receive offers in your new mailbox from credit-granting services, window blind companies or other businesses targeting new neighbors.

ntil recently, only a few savvy consumers were aware of how companies and mar– keters are minding your business. Enter the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse in July 1992. Operating as part of the Center for Public Inter– est Law in USD's School of

Law, the PRC is staffed by one full-time person and several part-time people. The staff disseminates information on priva– cy rights-with an emphasis on telecom– munications-and directs Californians to the appropriate source for action. In its first three months, the PRC staff researched numerous privacy issues to