Posted by nick237 at 03/07/2001 12:22 AM EST
Engineer on team #237, sie h2o bots, from Watertown high school ct and sieman co.
In Reply to: Re: SME cards ????? what are they for....?
Posted by Clinton Hamilton on 03/06/2001 9:59 PM EST:
Clinton. I believe that you believe all that you have said but to willingly give a DNA sample and other demographic information without knowing what the end resulting use would be is giving up your right to privicy.
Would you alow the government to plant a tracking and listening devise in a body cavity so that they would know what and where your going. This would be concidered going to far but thats all part of the invasion of ones rights to privicy.
If FIRST and SME want this information then let them get it honestly, the ploy of rewards should not be part of this information gathering.
We are not assured that this information will be kept private, it could be sold or given to any organization and its use could be some what questionable. I Emailed SME and told them that I was not happy giving personal information, I also explained that their knowing my race, color, sex and exact date of birth was not needed to go to a non alcohol party at Epcot.
Clinton, would you by any chance be interested in buying a bridge in Brooklyn, or some prime swamp land in Florida......
I promiss you its a great deal, and
I as a true member of FIRST would never lie.
nick237
: Let's theoretically assume for a moment that 2
: things that have been mentioned are true (mainly
: because I don't want to draw conjectures that I
: can't support) and look at this rationally :
: Assumption 1) Checking them is completely
: impractical (I won't debate this as it's more a issue
: of logistics than anything else. After all they did ask
: to see the armbands at Nats last year)
: Assumption 2) The real reason that FIRST wants
: you to have the cards is because they want to
: collect demographics on the people involved.
: If you assume that the two above statements are
: true you still end up with a weak argument for not
: getting the cards.
: Maybe I'm just too open with personal information
: for my own good. But personally I don't have any
: problem giving away my personal information to
: responsible organizations like FIRST and SME. If
: demographics of FIRST team members can help
: FIRST grow I'm all for it. Heck they can come by my
: house and take a DNA sample if they want to study
: the genetic traits of a FIRST junkies. We live in an
: information age. Power is in the information that
: you control. Being able to show a major
: undetermined sponsor that their money is going to
: be able to benefit not only the students but can
: help them promote their products or services could
: be the deciding factor that will may help FIRST
: swing another regional or convince a major
: corporation to start a bunch of new teams.
: Using the cards for admission may very well be
: impractical. If we assume that FIRST-SME knew
: this from the start the next most obvious
: assumption is that the team party entry statement
: is a bluff designed to get more people to register.
: Though I wouldn't necessarily promote this
: method of gather information if this were the case,
: it hardly seems more than a slight transgresion
: were that the case. After all how else are you going
: to preserve the statistical integrity of your data if
: only the most hard core FIRST junkies run out and
: register for this "worthless card". The team party
: entry requirement causes the majority of students
: that would otherwise not register for a card to get
: one anyways because the effort to register is much
: less than the frustration of being delayed at the
: team party just because you didn't spend 5
: minutes to fill out a short little form.
: Hope I provided a little bit of insight. Personally I
: would much rather believe that FIRST-SME truly
: has the best intentions and wouldn't purposely
: deceive the people that they seek to help.
: You can blame any spelling/grammar mistakes on
: my cat, Loki (appropriately named after the Norse
: god of Discord and Mischief). "Stop stepping on my
: laptop, bad kitty. ... No, the mouse cord is not the
: greatest thing since catnip. ... Yeah, the cursor is
: fun to chase across the screen. ... Fine, just lay on
: the keyboard if it will make you happy. I'll be back in
: 2 minutes to kick you off. .... Yes I know that my
: laptop is on your spot on the table. ... No matter
: how hard you stare at me I'm not going to move
: this thing just because you want to sit there."