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information sharing 

Ann's posting about information providers wanting to know searches and
clicks brings to mind a news story today that others will have heard:  CVS
and Giant pharmacies have acknowledged that they have been selling data
about patient prescription records to marketers to facilitate targeted
drug advertising.  "Dear Sir, Are you happy with how your anti-depressant
is working?  Have you talked to your doctor about Cheerzac?"  When called
on it (here's the only good news in this) the pharmacies said they'd stop.
I fear we live in a world in which we will have to assume that everything
about us is known, but it's well worth the fight for the professionals who
know the most personal things about us (medical, legal, and libraries come
to mind) AND FROM WHOM WE DON'T SIMPLY BUY COMMODITIES to be called on to
a higher standard.  (I mean that if I buy groceries, I guess I now expect
them to track my purchases and to print out coupons that I'm likely to
use.  Not sure I like it, but I feel less outraged.  But what I've done
in a medical clinic or a library feels like a much more personal and
private kind of transaction.)

Jim O'Donnell
Classics, U. of Penn
jod@ccat.sas.upenn.edu


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