AARP Pharmacy Service & Consumer Info-Privacy (fwd)

[Peter Marshall <rocque@eskimo.com>]

  ---------- Forwarded message ----------
  Date: Sat, 6 Apr 1996 18:21:36 GMT
  From: Peter Marshall <rocque@eskimo.com>
  Newsgroups: sci.med.pharmacy
  Subject: AARP Pharmacy Service and Consumer Info. Privacy (fwd)
  
  
  ---------- Forwarded message ----------
  Date: Fri, 5 Apr 1996 17:34:24 -0800 (PST)
  From: Peter Marshall <rocque@eskimo.com>
  Cc: privacy@vortex.com
  Newsgroups: comp.society.privacy
  Subject: Even  Dumber (AARP Privacy Invasion)
  
  
  On Fri, 5 Apr 1996, Adam Starchild wrote:
  
  > Date: Fri, 5 Apr 1996 16:27:17 -0800
  > From: Adam Starchild <taxhaven@ix.netcom.com>
  > Reply-To: privacy@ftc.gov
  > To: privacy@ftc.gov
  > Subject: Dumb and Dumber (AARP Privacy Invasion)
  >
  > >From Alicia Orr's P.S. column in Target Marketing magazine (a trade
  > journal for the direct mail industry), January, 1996:
  >
  >
  >                          Dumb and Dumber
  >
  >
  >      It seems obvious to us:  Postcards and privacy don't go
  > together.  So why do bit-time mailers keep asking consumers to put
  > private information -- like credit card numbers -- on postcard
  > reply devices?
  >      The latest offender is Retired Persons Services, an
  > organization sponsored by the American Association of Retired
  > Persons.
  >      The copy on one side of the postcard points out the hundreds
  > of dollars a year AARP members could save by using its Pharmacy
  > Service -- and that they'll give you a free price quote on the
  > medications you take now so you can find out just how much you'll
  > save.  Great, right?
  >      Wrong.  The reply half of the postcard asks members to list
  > the prescription medications they take -- including strength and
  > quantity -- right there on a postcard for the entire world to see!
  >
  > ------------------------------------------------------------------
  
  
  Interesting tie-in here to the AARP Pharmacy Service, which is also
  sponsored by AARP. Seems there are some more privacy issues that apply to
  these folks in addition to those explicitly involving privacy of personal
  health care information. And AARP P.S. doesn't tell its customers about the
  practices in question, thus precluding their ability to make informed choices.
  
  AARP P.S. appears to capture the originating numbers of callers to their
  800 number, with the ANI provided by MCI; although the P.S. states this
  is only done after the customer has already "voluntarily" provided this
  info. Requests to delete this data are apparently not complied with, and,
  as indicated, there is no prior disclosure to the caller.
  
  Same with their other practice--call "monitoring" or "service
  observing"--aka eavesdropping. A company exec. would neither confirm or
  deny they do this. Some employees who take these calls are much clearer
  about this practice, however....
  
  It all seems to add up to a rather un-pretty picture, and one that does
  no credit to sponsoring org. AARP. Communicate with your pocketbook--so it
  would seem.
  
  Peter Marshall