In the seat back pocket on one of the planes I was on this week was a discarded Time Magazine. Hmmm, I thought… something to look forward to after I finish reading my newspaper. I haven’t read an edition of Time Magazine in quite a while. When I finally pulled out the magazine I noted that the subscriber address printed on the bottom left of the front cover had been torn off. Interesting. Someone had finished reading through their edition of Time and desiring not to carry it any further had elected to leave it behind – appropriately sanitized for any personally identifiable information. It is, of course, exactly what I’d do. My wife, if she were there, would roll her eyes. I shred everything that comes into our house and goes back out again that has identifying marks that – I suppose- could be used to steal my identity. Many of those offers in the mail probably got there thanks to the magazine companies that re-marketed my subscription information. But, of course, throughout this week’s business trip I was passing around my credit card to strangers waiting on table at restaurants and bars, signing my name with no great concerns.
As arguments for privacy legislation continue to wend their way through Congress the santitized Time Magazine made me think how much nearer the edge of personal identification the outside media world lives and how, in comparison, online feels so much more private. There’s the irony, I suppose: that privacy online has the industry parading up and down the field in front of privacy advocates. Yet, online is not the privacy problem that disturbs me at home at night or makes me anxious about the things I leave on airplanes.
