At 3:03 PM -0700 6/3/01, Dave Watson wrote:
>> My recourse is to take my business elsewhere, of course.
>> --Tim May
>
>I haven't found "elsewhere" to be much better. Wall Street Journal
>Report had an article on this today, too. They said only about 1%
>opted out. Maybe we should take a more active role -- in opting
>ourselves and encouraging our friends.
If things get bad enough, I can imagine telling my broker of 26
years, J.C. of Morgan Stanley Dean Witter, that I am "unhappy with
Morgan Stanley's sale of customer information policies" and that I
wish to have my shares in street name re-issued to me in my own name.
This would be a drastic step, certain to cause my broker's boss, and
his boss, and _his_ boss, say to J.C. "What the _fuck_ happened here?"
This is what I meant by "take my business elsewhere."
And, of course, Cypherpunks should realize this is a business
opportunity...long term. If in fact all American brokerages and banks
are willing to sell out their customers' privacy, then there should
be a market for banks and brokerages which are more willing to
protect privacy. (Even modulo U.S. banking laws...none of which
require a bank or brokerage or credit card company to sell customer
data to K-Mart and Martha Stewart.)
--Tim May
--
Timothy C. May [EMAIL PROTECTED] Corralitos, California
Political: Co-founder Cypherpunks/crypto anarchy/Cyphernomicon
Technical: physics/soft errors/Smalltalk/Squeak/agents/games/Go
Personal: b.1951/UCSB/Intel '74-'86/retired/investor/motorcycles/guns
