Recently an issue of The Wall Street Journal contained a multi-page article by Michael Totty with a banner headline: How To Protect Your Private Information. I read it with great interest since privacy is certainly one of the key communication issues we face in The Information Age.

The article began: “On the Internet” as a New Yorker cartoon famously observed, “no one knows you’re a dog. Thanks to the ease of finding personal information online, that may be the only thing they don’t know…… It’s enough to make anyone feel…exposed. Do we really want our friends, our neighbors, our colleagues—or any stranger, for that matter—knowing so much about us? Do we want them to know even the small stuff: where we’ve lived, how much we paid for our house, how old we are, how they can reach us?”

Well that worried me? Was I that exposed? Have I been getting email that invades my privacy? So I did something about it. I decided to read and copy all the email I received this morning fearing the worst. Let me share it with you without embarrassment.

email: 9:30 am January 31, 2007.

   Mohammedobe……………strangulate subbtrahend

   Sylvia Roberts…………….Request an appointment

   N.Y. Times .com………..Today’s Headlines: In The Senate

   Mable…………………Hot shot stock Info pitilessly

   Lori Ann Pope……..On-Line Pre-Registration closes

   Inter-America………Inter-American Dialogue World

   Inter-America……...Latin America’s Wireless Sector

   Susanne Sicilli…..Signing now for the Best of B-to-B

   auto-confirm………..You’re order with Amazon.com

   Celeste……………………..Hot Shot Stock Info Call

 

I love the Web, but I hate irrelevance.

Nobody knows I’m a dog!   Need I say more?

Lester Wunderman