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New Country of origin labeling

[link|http://news.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2003/11/09/BUGME2SG5L1.DTL&type=business|For data processing].

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David Lazarus, holding up the SF Chronicle all on his lonesome:

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A group of East Coast info-tech professionals says that everyone's entitled to his own opinion on the matter, but companies doing the outsourcing should at least be required to tell consumers that personal information is heading overseas.

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As such, these techies -- members of a grassroots organization called the Programmer's Guild, with about 1,000 members nationwide -- have drafted an "Information Technology Disclosure Act" that they say should serve as a model for federal legislation.

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"We're not telling companies where they can or can't go," said John DeMartinis, a New Jersey code jockey who was the disclosure act's main author. "We're just saying that they have to tell people about it."

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He's got a point. One important aspect of the outsourcing trend is that practitioners frequently take elaborate steps to keep their exporting of work overseas a secret.

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Nondisclosure and confidentiality agreements are routine among outsourcers and their contractors abroad. Most companies in fact refuse to even comment on such activities, citing the need to protect proprietary information.

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This practice seems unsavory in part because such companies treat it as something shameful. In their efforts to avoid embarrassing questions and bad press, these firms have all but invited increased scrutiny of their actions.

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What, consumers rightfully ask, do they have to hide?

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DeMartinis' proposed Information Technology Disclosure Act seeks to put such questions to rest by mandating that customers be informed if any of their personal data is sent abroad. It also would require that:

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  • Consumers be given the right to opt out from having personal information -- such as their name, address or Social Security number -- go to other countries;
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  • A "serviced in" label be affixed to every statement or document processed overseas, just as manufactured goods must state a country of origin;
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  • Overseas customer-service workers, who often take pains to mask their location, identify their whereabouts at the outset of any conversation;
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  • Calls be rerouted to domestic facilities if the consumer so chooses.
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The disclosure act says such steps are intended to "help ensure that consumers get the information they need in order to exercise choice, get redress or remedy, and protect the security and safety of their personal information."

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...

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--\r\n
Karsten M. Self [link|mailto:kmself@ix.netcom.com|kmself@ix.netcom.com]\r\n
[link|http://kmself.home.netcom.com/|http://kmself.home.netcom.com/]\r\n
What part of "gestalt" don't you understand?\r\n
[link|http://twiki.iwethey.org/twiki/bin/view/Main/|TWikIWETHEY] -- an experiment in collective intelligence. Stupidity. Whatever.\r\n
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   Keep software free.     Oppose the CBDTPA.     Kill S.2048 dead.\r\n[link|http://www.eff.org/alerts/20020322_eff_cbdtpa_alert.html|http://www.eff.org/alerts/20020322_eff_cbdtpa_alert.html]\r\n
New Nice find. Could have been put stronger,
With no weaseling a la "everyone's entitled to his own opinion". IMO.

But any prospect of opting-out gores so many expen$ive oxen - what do you think the chances are? With cost-plus contracts to Halliburton still de rigeur: nada under Shrub. Fire him summarily or status quo.

If half the populace doesn't even bother to vote, what % is apt to give a thought to where their info goes, less'n that huge bugaboo ID theft is given its entirely appropriate Major Notice within any such project. I found no mention of 'identity' or 'theft' - faux pas?

Alas, what with the monstrous quagmire du jour, The Draft etc. - matters like Longhorn and this scurrilous portent.. well, you know what I mean.

Ashton
New I had an interestingly reverse experience with a call centre
It was a technical support call to Lotus a few years ago. For me, it was a local call within Australia, but the lady who answered and who I dealt with until the problem was resolved was in the US! I noticed she had an accent and commented on it and she cheerfully said where she was. I think it somewhere in Maryland.

Wade.

Is it enough to love
Is it enough to breathe
Somebody rip my heart out
And leave me here to bleed
 
Is it enough to die
Somebody save my life
I'd rather be Anything but Ordinary
Please

-- "Anything but Ordinary" by Avril Lavigne.

New Not so surprising
Lotus being a US company and all.

OTOH, I made a tech support call to Intuit about TurboTax balking at allowing me to electronically file my US income tax and the support person was clearly in India.

That annoyed me quite a lot.



"I believe that many of the systems we build today in Java would be better built in Smalltalk and Gemstone."

     -- Martin Fowler, JAOO 2003
Expand Edited by tuberculosis Aug. 21, 2007, 06:40:30 AM EDT
New A policy that should be made law
"You're just like me streak. You never left the free-fire zone.You think aspirins and meetings and cold showers are going to clean out your head. What you want is God's permission to paint the trees with the bad guys. That wont happen big mon." Clete
questions, help? [link|mailto:pappas@catholic.org|email pappas at catholic.org]
     Country of origin labeling - (kmself) - (4)
         Nice find. Could have been put stronger, - (Ashton)
         I had an interestingly reverse experience with a call centre - (static) - (1)
             Not so surprising - (tuberculosis)
         A policy that should be made law -NT - (boxley)

You... shall not... pass!
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