When we worry about who might be spying .on our private lives, we usually, think about the Federal agents. But the private sector outdoes the government every time. It’s Linda Tripp, not the FBI, who is facing charges under Maryland’s laws against secret telephone taping. It’s our banks, not the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), that pass our private financial data to telemarketing firms.
Consumer activists are pressing Congress for better privacy laws without much result so far. The legislators lean toward letting business people track our financial habits virtually at will.
As an example of what’s going on, consider U.S. Bancorp, which was recently sued for deceptive practices by the state of Minnesota. According to the lawsuit, the bank supplied a telemarketer called MemberWorks with sensitive customer data such as names, phone numbers, bank-account and credit-card numbers, Social Security numbers, account balances and credit limits.
A. you fail to cancel it within the specified period
B. you happen to reveal your credit card number
C. you find the product or service unsatisfactory
D. you fail to apply for extension of the deadline
When we worry about who might be spying .on our private lives, we usually, think about the Federal agents. But the private sector outdoes the government every time. It’s Linda Tripp, not the FBI, who is facing charges under Maryland’s laws against secret telephone taping. It’s our banks, not the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), that pass our private financial data to telemarketing firms.
Consumer activists are pressing Congress for better privacy laws without much result so far. The legislators lean toward letting business people track our financial habits virtually at will.
As an example of what’s going on, consider U.S. Bancorp, which was recently sued for deceptive practices by the state of Minnesota. According to the lawsuit, the bank supplied a telemarketer called MemberWorks with sensitive customer data such as names, phone numbers, bank-account and credit-card numbers, Social Security numbers, account balances and credit limits.
A. is mainly carried out by means of secret taping
B. has been intensified with the help of the IRS
C. is practiced exclusively by the FBI
D. is more prevalent in business circles
When we think about happiness, we usually think of something extraordinary, a peak of great delight--and those peaks seem to get rarer the older we get.
For a child, happiness has a magical quality. I remember making hide-outs in newly cut hay, playing cops and robbers in the woods, getting a speaking part in the school play. Of course, kids also experience lows, but their delight at such peaks of pleasure as winning a race or getting a new bike is unreserved.
For teenagers, or people under twenty, the concept of happiness changes. Suddenly it’ s conditional on such things as excitement, love, and popularity. I can still feel the agony of not being invited to a party that almost everyone else was going to. But I also recall the great happiness of being invited at another event to dance with a very handsome young man.
In adulthood the things that bring great joy--birth, love, marriage--also bring responsibility and the risk of loss. Love may not last,
A. think of something extraordinary
B. experience delight at an old age
C. feel the magic quality of pleasure
D. enjoy what one has at the moment
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