Personal Information

It goes without saying that our government and various segments of business and industry collect an unprecedented amount of information on us.  With computing power, it becomes quite easy to maintain an extensive database on everything from purchasing decisions to travel movements to tax and financial records.  Sounds scary, and it is.  Now, I'm not one to totally bury my head in the sand.  I can see and can trust that there are secure internet protocols that allow me to purchase something from Amazon with a credit card and not worry (too much) about my personal information.  However, recently, I've experienced, read about, or recalled some events that truly go too far.

Was in a small version of a national chain department store in Stillwater a few months back.  Don't recall purchasing anything and was likely getting information on chest freezers.  While at the counter, a man walked up with a Shop-Vac and a wad of cash ready to purchase.  The cashier announced the total and asked for the man's telephone number.  He said, "I don't want to provide that.  This is a cash purchase."  The cashier said he needed it for the warranty validation.  The man said, "I don't want the warranty - just the Shop-Vac. Cash purchase."  The cashier persisted.  The man responded again, this time with slight bellligerence, "This is a cash purchase.  Take my money or I'm walking out."  He ended up walking out with no Shop-Vac.  I don't know if the staff knew this man and had ulterior reasons for insisting, or if they just have stupid policies.  But, I left their store bewildered that one could not make a cash purchase these days without being hassled for personal information.

Recently traveled to the Florida Gulf coast and back.  While re-fueling at a few Texas gas stations, I was asked to provide a ZIP code after swiping my credit card.  I refused.  It made both of those transactions take three times as long, as I had to do it 'the old fashioned way' by handing my card to someone.  (Wow! That's a new application for the term old-fashioned.)  I was very suspicious of the info request - it did not occur in any other state and there was no stated reason for the info request.  I found out at incident #2 that it was a security measure to make sure your credit card was not stolen.  OOOOO  KKKKKK...... But, why couldn't they tell someone that on the little info screen at the pump?  I mean that little gas pump display has no problem telling me their LOW LOW price on a carton of cigarettes.  Why can't they tell me that their little ZIP code request is to ensure your credit card is not stolen.  Besides, how secure is this little info request when all I had to do to get around it was take the card in personally to a cashier and handle the transaction the slow way.  They didn't ask for my ZIP code or ID in there.  Strange and inconsistent, to say the very least.

The upcoming U.S. census is becoming surrounded by a small amount of controversy.  It seems that the Census has deemed it necessary to collect unprecedented amounts of information on U.S. residents.  I believe the Constitutional stipulation is 'to count the people.'  But, I am told that they now ask questions such as: 1. number of bathrooms in your home, 2. time of departure and arrival for work, 3. phone number(s), 4. your mental stability.  I've heard it is a 28 page form, but the question "What is your citizenship status?" is not one of the questions.  Wow! It truly is an upside down world when the government WON'T ask a question they have every RIGHT to ask, but they WILL ask numerous questions that they have NO RIGHT to ask.  The government leader shining some light on this is Michele Bachmann, a Republican representative of Minnesota.