by Etude 11 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
Does anyone know if it's at all possible to see what the WT has on you if you're not longer associated with them? Is it possible to request, maybe legally, that they expunge any information about you? Does it stay there forever? Has anyone ever tried to do that?
Etude.
Technically, unless it is a juicy JC, the secretary is directed to destroy any files after 5 years. Of course, some elders never listen to the WTS. As long as you are considered in good standing (not DF'd or DA'd but inactive), they will keep your card forever. Your publisher's record card has a record of your field ministry, your name, last known address, DOB, date of baptism, anointed/other sheep, elder/MS/regular pioneer. Nothing else. So what the hey.
Blondie
Then there's the copy that gets sent to Brooklyn when you are DF'd.
Become a criminal and the WT will effectively delete all documents relating you to them and deny you were a JW at all 
Well, becoming a criminal is a bit drastic, even for me. I've been mad enough at times to take a bull horn and pace in front of 124 Columbia Heights and nag them until they do it.
However, I'm looking for some legal procedure that may even set some precedent. I thought I would just test the waters in case someone had done something similar. I'll be looking around.
Etude.
Does "theocratic warfare strategy" mean anything to you? Even if you get them to officially destroy your records you can bet your last Watchtower that there is a backup copy somewhere. WT does not take orders from Satan's System.
I don't know what, precisely, is bothering you about that particular organization having information about you. Maybe it's just the idea that they have it at all and you are not even a member? If that's the case, really, why worry about it? Have you any idea how much information (and I mean very personal information) has been collected about you by other organizations during your lifetime? And how that collected information is bought and sold, even by entities that say they will never do such things?
The only thing that matters is how you live your life today. Let them have their "records". It's all dryness and dust. You are the real living person. Nothing they can collect and store has any power or influence over the life you lead...unless you let it. You will not lose any real love or respect nor can you gain any real "standing" based on such stored information. It's dead. It's over, whether the information collected is true or false. Let it go.
"Let the dead bury their dead." Soon all WT will have left is memories.
Nina
As far as I know there is no way to get your records back or deleated.
There has been new direction on cards on inactive publishers. No publishers cards are to be disgarded. They are to stay in the file indefinately. This way the elders will know who is still in their "care" and can make visits from time to time.
Nina:
It's OK. I'm not aiming to destroy any information in particular by what I suggest. I want nothing more than to make it an exercise in challenging something that seems impenetrable. I know it may seem to you like quixotic quest, but I bet I can learn a lot from that. It's just a germ of an idea that could develop into something more.
I don't particularly care what they do with the information they have on me. You're right about how much information other entities have about me. I know all about that because I used to deal with information security. The difference is that at least I can guess their motives: usually they want to sell me something or they want my demographics in order to know how to market to me. If what they seek is identity theft, I've taken precautions for years to avoid that. If they just want to play big brother (should that be the government), I know how to pick my battles. So I don't care. I'm just amazed at what the Watchtower could possibly want with my information. Why keep it in perpetuity? Given the way they work, it's possible that they want to, I don't know, keep track of you? As I said, I really don't care, but it would be fun to try even if no one else has done it. So there's really nothing to let go and nothing to move on to for me in that respect.
I happen to have some time (I retired recently) and I thought it would be good fodder for writing a book or something like that. A friend of mine recently had an article about him published in Wired magazine after he created a ruse to catch one of those spamers that claim they have a hugh amount of money from the "Batunde" government they can't get to and they need you to recover it. He (my friend) played his scheme so well (just for fun, in his spare time) that he duped the money collector into meeting him on a street corner in Amsterdam, where my friend knew there was a web cam. He was able to take pictures of the guy and blow his cover.
I can understand if some people can't imagine how one would go about attacking the situation I described at the onset of this thread. However, I have already considered other more underhanded means which my personal ethics prevent me from carrying out. I don't think the WT has anything on me that I would be ashamed of. But it does irk me that someone keeps that information with no obvious socially or economically useful intent like the government would or your insurance company. Now, anything the Watchtower has on anyone is digitally stored and who knows how it can be used in the future. Remember the McCarthy era? No problem here. I think I can survive an inquisition, should it happen. Thank you for the zealousness in your comments, but it's OK. Believe me, I'm not loosing sleep over it.
Etude.
I am sure that if you get the "right" lawyer, you can have your records expunged. There is a family out on the east end of Long Island (NY) who got a lawyer and had their dedication and baptism annuled legally. The result was that they are now like any other "wordly" person, and cannot be judicially prosecuted for the things that they do and say. They are subject to counsel by coming to the meetings, but nothing judicial. I would think that their lawyer might be able to advise on having your records legally expunged.
