All this talk about electronic vs. paper publication of the Texas Caver reminds
me of a related issue:
Is it safe to give your email address to TSA?
For years TSA has been asking for our email addresses on the membership renewal
forms, and I have been refusing to give them mine. During this same period,
however, I have been providing my email address (along with mailing address and
phone numbers) to the UT Grotto for publication in their "UT Grotto Phone
List". Why is it that I have felt that my email address was sufficiently safe
with the UT Grotto but not with TSA? The answer is that the "UT Grotto Phone
List" is published only in paper form, where email addresses and other personal
information is not likely to be harvested by spammers, telemarketers, search
engines, etc.
I don't have that kind of confidence in TSA, however, because for years, I've
heard various people within TSA advocating expanded use of digital publication
without adequately considering the negative consequences of what they are
advocating. Most disturbing has been the proposal I've heard from time to time
that TSA publish its membership list information electronically, perhaps by
placing it on a web site. This might be cheap and convenient for TSA to
implement and for TSA members to use, but it also could make our personal
information much more vulnerable to automated harvesting by those who would use
it in ways we never intended. Once our email addresses, cell phone numbers,
etc. have been harvested from a digitally published list, there would be no
cheap and convenient way to undo the damage. How can we be confident that the
continuing push towards digital publication within TSA will not lead to ill
considered digital publication of email addresses and other information
vulnerable to automated harvesting?
Rod
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