Politech: FC: Sprint PCS browsers give out phone numbers; more on AMA threat

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

> To: declan () vorlon mit edu
> Subject: Sprint PCS WAP browsers leave phone numbers with websites
> From: Jered J Floyd <jered () 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 () well com
From: "Matthew G. Saroff" <msaroff () 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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