Razing Ruth's niece adopted by same sex couple

[BravaAmica]

Re: privacy

I have stopped using shopping reward programs because I was uncomfortable with the amount of information they were getting out of me. I, uh, had intimate knowledge of one program in particular that schooled me on the sheer amount of information I was giving away. While no financial information was tracked there were gobs of information any employee could view at any time. For example - you buy gas, swipe your points card and then it went on record - how much you bought, when you bought and what location you bought it from. You bought tampons last month? It's there on file. Condoms? It's there too. Granted, it's not like they're storing state secrets, but if you'd like to maintain your privacy as much as is possible these days, you might want to weigh the benefits of reward programs against what information they are storing on you and who can view it. It's really pretty creepy, in my opinion.

Which is why my rewards cards are linked to a fake name, birth date, email and phone number. I also primarily use cash. I just want the discounts, man.

[Dixiebelle]

Which is why my rewards cards are linked to a fake name, birth date, email and phone number. I also primarily use cash. I just want the discounts, man.

Yes, this! Mine are under fake information. My husband calls me paranoid. Whatever. I have 95 cents a gallon off of 20 gallons of gas waiting for me on my Winn-Dixie card. 8-)

[aimee]

Which is why my rewards cards are linked to a fake name, birth date, email and phone number. I also primarily use cash. I just want the discounts, man.

Oh, I hear ya. My store reward cards are all registered to my cat. Gosh, that cat has a nose for a bargain...savvy little beast.

Just a few cautionary points...

If you register for points under a false identity you may have problems accessing points if you lose a card, someone hacks your account or you look to split an account due to, say, divorce. I figure if I'm stupid enough to lose my card, give away the account's password or find myself in the middle of a messy divorce well, serves me right for registering the account in my cat's name. Kitty ain't got no documents or identification, that's for sure.

To anyone collecting points through a bank account or credit card - you are totally being tracked under your legit identity so you might want to weigh the benefits/rewards against the privacy you're losing. It's certainly made me reconsider the points I earn under my credit card...

[smores]

Aimee, I am not sure which company you are speaking of but I can 100% guarantee that the data is identity removed by a 3rd party before DH's company ever sees it and of the people at the corporate office, only a very select few can look up customers; however, since they contract out for market research, they don't generally ever look anyone up.

No one cares what you personally buy. They will never ever ever sell the data they collect (in fact, it makes them more money to keep that data a secret rather than it land in the hands of a rival - this is true for almost all retail stores you shop in). You do not have to worry that much. I was just saying, your data is already out there because they want to know, basically, what products are worth it to be in stores. Might as well get the fuel perks/points/cents/whatever and discounts too.

[Austin]

I guess I just can't get riled up that somebody out there knows I have a penchant for Greek yogurt, hummus with pine nuts, and dark chocolate.

[aimee]

Aimee, I am not sure which company you are speaking of but I can 100% guarantee that the data is identity removed by a 3rd party before DH's company ever sees it and of the people at the corporate office, only a very select few can look up customers; however, since they contract out for market research, they don't generally ever look anyone up.

No one cares what you personally buy. They will never ever ever sell the data they collect (in fact, it makes them more money to keep that data a secret rather than it land in the hands of a rival - this is true for almost all retail stores you shop in). You do not have to worry that much. I was just saying, your data is already out there because they want to know, basically, what products are worth it to be in stores. Might as well get the fuel perks/points/cents/whatever and discounts too.

I am obviously not speaking to "DH's company." I am referring to reward or points companies who employ customer service agents (and the like) who are absolutely allowed to see details of an account. This is not market research I am referring to. I am referring to the company that handles the program providing you with perks.

I am not paranoid in the least, due to first hand accounts of customer service agents who may access accounts for the purpose of running the program. So yes, there are people who care very much about what you buy. I'm not talking big picture here, I'm talkin on a micro-scale. The person you're dating, your neighbor, your spouse etc.

Good example? You start dating a new guy. You ask your customer service friend to look the new guy up. What's his address? Where does he shop? When does he shop? And so on and so forth. You could be perfectly comfortable with customer service reps looking at your data, that's totally cool because I know some people just don't give a hoot, but I hoot I give. I'm not talking big brother style conspiracy, I'm just talking about a nosy employee who might be peeking at your info and sharing it with people you'd rather not make your info open to. Of course companies make their employees sign confidentially contracts and the like, but if the info is there, there very well may be people looking at it.

[Witsec5]

Okay, this actually happened to me. A former friend was working on an Escript campaign. Her kid and mine used to be friends in K and that's why we hung out. Anyway, Escript gives a percentage of your purchases from participating stores (like Safeway grocery store) to your kid's school or to a nonprofit of your choice. She had access to all of our records by name and she called up several parents to confront them about their Safeway card use urging them to spend more at Safeway. Apparently she was able to track how much each family was spending at Safeway each month. Some of the people got mad and called it a violation of privacy and she did ask me if they were right. She had no idea that one...and you can't say it was because she was from Germany because people all around the world should know when they are being too nosy. Anyway, I saw the computer program and data once when I was over at her house. It had records for each eScript customer where they shopped for the month and how much they spent. So obviously although the money really helped the school to the tune of 40K in one year but it still was pretty bad.

[aimee]

I guess I just can't get riled up that somebody out there knows I have a penchant for Greek yogurt, hummus with pine nuts, and dark chocolate.

Totally, that's pretty bland stuff. My chocolate milk problem (in that I buy it almost very day) isn't something I would attempt to hide (my fat arse kinda hints at some kind of chocolate problem anyway.) But if I'm in the early stages of dating, and the dude I'm dating gets curious and asks his buddy at the call center to look me up do I want him to know I bought a box of condoms a few weeks ago (and now I only have one left-heh.) Do I want him to know I was out of the city on a skiing trip last month? Do I want him to know I recently made a large purchase of anti-diarrhea pills? Do I want to give this guy my address? My landline number? If I'm stepping on out my partner do I want her friend at the company to have access to my details that will totally out me?

All just random, obvious examples, just to illustrate my point. I guess I just mean to point out that we worry a lot about protecting our information online but out in the real world, we expose ourselves on a small scale all too often. Like back in the day when the neighborhood photo developer knew everything there was to know about us. Sometimes it's smart to think small rather than worry that a massive company is sharing vague information about you.

[icecreamycakeycake]

I worked for a company that sells luxury goods online. Any purchace over a certain amount went to the review department for screening. There the reviewer would google, and use tools to search the customer and provide notes. I could log into the order info and see everything, how much their house was worth (and address), what they did for a living (professional actor, ceo, lawyer), income, etc. Of course, this was to prevent fraud but I still was shocked that they did it and somewhat appalled that pretty much everyone in the company had access to this info.

[apple1]

I guess I just can't get riled up that somebody out there knows I have a penchant for Greek yogurt, hummus with pine nuts, and dark chocolate.

8-) (not sure about the hummus, but dark chocolate and Greek yogurt... yum)

[Kaylee]

I worked for a company that sells luxury goods online. Any purchace over a certain amount went to the review department for screening. There the reviewer would google, and use tools to search the customer and provide notes. I could log into the order info and see everything, how much their house was worth (and address), what they did for a living (professional actor, ceo, lawyer), income, etc. Of course, this was to prevent fraud but I still was shocked that they did it and somewhat appalled that pretty much everyone in the company had access to this info.

There's an online company that provides much of this info on people to anyone who pays as well. I think most of it comes from those surveys on warranty cards and things. It also reveals email addresses for many people. I've done background checks on a few people for various reasons (mostly people working with youth at our church now), and there have been 2 different times where somebody has passes a standard background check but searching their email address brought up some very questionable things.

[Austin]

Totally, that's pretty bland stuff. My chocolate milk problem (in that I buy it almost very day) isn't something I would attempt to hide (my fat arse kinda hints at some kind of chocolate problem anyway.) But if I'm in the early stages of dating, and the dude I'm dating gets curious and asks his buddy at the call center to look me up do I want him to know I bought a box of condoms a few weeks ago (and now I only have one left-heh.) Do I want him to know I was out of the city on a skiing trip last month? Do I want him to know I recently made a large purchase of anti-diarrhea pills? Do I want to give this guy my address? My landline number? If I'm stepping on out my partner do I want her friend at the company to have access to my details that will totally out me?

All just random, obvious examples, just to illustrate my point. I guess I just mean to point out that we worry a lot about protecting our information online but out in the real world, we expose ourselves on a small scale all too often. Like back in the day when the neighborhood photo developer knew everything there was to know about us. Sometimes it's smart to think small rather than worry that a massive company is sharing vague information about you.

Really? Are you really that concerned that a boyfriend may just happen to have a friend who has access (and would actually agree to share it, which would probably pose an employment risk) to all this oh-so-interesting information about you? If so, you should also be concerned over all the many, many people who have access to all sorts of information about you which has nothing to do with your retail habits. If you have ever attended school or college, if you hold a license of any type, if you drive a car or own a home, have insured your life, car, or home, or sought medical care (along with a host of other situations), there is oodles of information out there that someone is in a position to leak if they are so inclined.

You can live a cash-only life, which you should certainly do if it makes you feel better, and people should definitely exercise caution about giving out personal information, but even so, there is plenty out there for people to find if they have a notion to do so. While in college (in the early 1980s), I worked part-time for an investigative firm and this was before access to computers and way before the internet. Even then, investigators were able to put together vast files on people and they didn't need anyone to swipe a card for that information to be available to them. There is a certain amount of information about ALL of us out there, and nothing will change that. If someone truly wants it, they can get it. That doesn't mean that we shouldn't take reasonable precautions, but a very high degree of worry over this issue is like worrying about the weather, which will not change no matter how much you worry.

[Boogalou]

I read an interesting article on companies collecting people's buying information recently. Target is using the information they collect to predict when women are pregnant and they are, apparently, pretty good at it. Target sent a flyer full of baby stuff to a teenager and her father got a hold of it. The father went in to Target and go mad at the manager because he said Target was encouraging teen girls to get pregnant. Then he called back a few days later to apologize because it turned out that his daughter was pregnant. Here are the stories if anyone is interested in reading them:

Sociological Images

Forbes

NY Times

[Witsec5]

Yeah. I did read that article about Target. Talk about outing someone!

Amazon made some predictions for me, "You might also like..." based on my buying and search history. I was pretty shocked by what came up because they assumed that I was living a certain very specific type of lifestyle and they were right. I'm usually not surprised by what comes up, but this time it was a little too close to home.

[dawbs]

Good example? You start dating a new guy. You ask your customer service friend to look the new guy up. What's his address? Where does he shop? When does he shop? And so on and so forth. You could be perfectly comfortable with customer service reps looking at your data, that's totally cool because I know some people just don't give a hoot, but I hoot I give. I'm not talking big brother style conspiracy, I'm just talking about a nosy employee who might be peeking at your info and sharing it with people you'd rather not make your info open to. Of course companies make their employees sign confidentially contracts and the like, but if the info is there, there very well may be people looking at it.

There have actually been a few cases where courts used this sort of info to try to show that someone was an alcoholic, etc.

That leaves me a touch paranoid--especially since I work in education, home of the "oh look, she bought a beer, she should be fired" and "oh, she has condoms in her cart, sluts shouldn't be teachers!" attitude run ramant w/ firings.

[icecreamycakeycake]

I'm bothered by my first and last name being on sales recipts at work. When I expressed this to my manager she shrugged it off with a "we've never had a problem". Well, yeah... you don't have a problem until you have one. The scenario that bothers me the most is the disgruntled customer blowing up the internet "review" sites. Recently, a customer did exactly this to get satisfaction, and while it's her right to voice an opinion, she stated in the complaints the associate who helped her "totally lied to her", which was inaccurate along with the typical bad customer service BS (the associate had nothing to do with her not getting what she wanted, it was managment, of course). Fortunately she remembered the associates name incorrectly and didn't use her last name, but what if she had noticed her first and last name on the reciept? My co-workers full name along with mis-information about the transaction could have followed her forever and been a factor in subsequent job searches with an prospective employer doing a simple google search.

This is just one privacy issue out of many I could name. The DM is a HUGE privacy nut, we had a long conversation about this the last time she was in town, she might be more receptive. Should I bring it up with her?

[aimee]

Really? Are you really that concerned that a boyfriend may just happen to have a friend who has access (and would actually agree to share it, which would probably pose an employment risk) to all this oh-so-interesting information about you? If so, you should also be concerned over all the many, many people who have access to all sorts of information about you which has nothing to do with your retail habits. If you have ever attended school or college, if you hold a license of any type, if you drive a car or own a home, have insured your life, car, or home, or sought medical care (along with a host of other situations), there is oodles of information out there that someone is in a position to leak if they are so inclined.

You can live a cash-only life, which you should certainly do if it makes you feel better, and people should definitely exercise caution about giving out personal information, but even so, there is plenty out there for people to find if they have a notion to do so. While in college (in the early 1980s), I worked part-time for an investigative firm and this was before access to computers and way before the internet. Even then, investigators were able to put together vast files on people and they didn't need anyone to swipe a card for that information to be available to them. There is a certain amount of information about ALL of us out there, and nothing will change that. If someone truly wants it, they can get it. That doesn't mean that we shouldn't take reasonable precautions, but a very high degree of worry over this issue is like worrying about the weather, which will not change no matter how much you worry.

Whoa now, you are totally misreading me if you think I have "a very high degree of worry over this issue." That's simply not true. I think you are exaggerating my message. I brought up my experiences in this matter just to give people something to think about and it's something not a whole lot of people give much thought to. Like how they expose aspects of their lives to customer service agents. I do not participate in reward programs that require my genuine contact information. The less out there about me, the better. It doesn't make me paranoid, it makes me cautious. I have en ex in my past who would VERY much like to know where I am and what I'm up to (including, yes, what I've been buying at the pharmacy.) I feel that keeping my identity and identifying details to a minimum is in my best interest. My genuine contact info is on my bank account, my cell/net account and my government account. That's it. That's all. Hell, you can google my name and come up blank, If you are someone like me, looking to keep access to their details at a minimum, this is something you might want to consider.

I can easily imagine someone abusing their access to information because I've seen it happen. Over and over again. You meet some guy on the internet, you reverse search any info he's given you and then you pull up his account and you get your dirty little mitts on all kinds of information you wouldn't otherwise have access to. Information he might not appreciate you having seen. I can easily imagine someone getting caught for stepping out for some strange because I've seen it happen. I can easily imagine a spouse getting caught out for having a "secret" bank account.

You are comfortable sharing all of your information and obviously you don't feel there is any need to protect your information - I suppose in this regard you are more laid back than I or you've no reason to want your information kept as private as possible which is a pretty good way to live, if you can afford to.

[moreorlessnu]

I worked for a company that sells luxury goods online. Any purchace over a certain amount went to the review department for screening. There the reviewer would google, and use tools to search the customer and provide notes. I could log into the order info and see everything, how much their house was worth (and address), what they did for a living (professional actor, ceo, lawyer), income, etc. Of course, this was to prevent fraud but I still was shocked that they did it and somewhat appalled that pretty much everyone in the company had access to this info.

Home address and how much a house worth are public records. What people do for a living can be garnered from census records. Income? Well, that would have to be self disclosed, such as a survey people fill out when they purchase the luxury goods, or if they had to register an account to make that purchase online.

Have you ever opened an account with a furniture store or appliance store for "Zero down, zero interest for a bazillion years" type offer? They ask for your income. One time I asked the store, "how much do I have to make per year to qualify to buy $X worth of furniture/appliances?" Turns out I needed to make some ridiculously low $5k/year to qualify for the $3k (or whatever purchase). So, there you go. I filled out the form, stating that I made $5k/year. It was true that I made at least $5k per year. I just didn't disclose how many times over I made that $5k/year.

That info was entered into some database. Somewhere, there is a group of people who think I am a poor soul who makes $5k per year.

So, when you are asked your income, unless it is very important for the person who is asking to know exactly how much you make, think twice about revealing that information, and think about to what extent you actually need to reveal your income.

[BravaAmica]

There's an online company that provides much of this info on people to anyone who pays as well. I think most of it comes from those surveys on warranty cards and things. It also reveals email addresses for many people. I've done background checks on a few people for various reasons (mostly people working with youth at our church now), and there have been 2 different times where somebody has passes a standard background check but searching their email address brought up some very questionable things.

How did you search their email addresses? Like accessing their account or just plugging their email addresses in a search engine?

[Austin]

Whoa now, you are totally misreading me if you think I have "a very high degree of worry over this issue." That's simply not true. I think you are exaggerating my message. I brought up my experiences in this matter just to give people something to think about and it's something not a whole lot of people give much thought to. Like how they expose aspects of their lives to customer service agents. I do not participate in reward programs that require my genuine contact information. The less out there about me, the better. It doesn't make me paranoid, it makes me cautious. I have en ex in my past who would VERY much like to know where I am and what I'm up to (including, yes, what I've been buying at the pharmacy.) I feel that keeping my identity and identifying details to a minimum is in my best interest. My genuine contact info is on my bank account, my cell/net account and my government account. That's it. That's all. Hell, you can google my name and come up blank, If you are someone like me, looking to keep access to their details at a minimum, this is something you might want to consider.

I can easily imagine someone abusing their access to information because I've seen it happen. Over and over again. You meet some guy on the internet, you reverse search any info he's given you and then you pull up his account and you get your dirty little mitts on all kinds of information you wouldn't otherwise have access to. Information he might not appreciate you having seen. I can easily imagine someone getting caught for stepping out for some strange because I've seen it happen. I can easily imagine a spouse getting caught out for having a "secret" bank account.

You are comfortable sharing all of your information and obviously you don't feel there is any need to protect your information - I suppose in this regard you are more laid back than I or you've no reason to want your information kept as private as possible which is a pretty good way to live, if you can afford to.

Yes, I am comfortable sharing ALL of my information. I had my SSN put on my license plate.

Srsly, you do seem very concerned about this and that's fine. As I stated, use cash and do whatever you need to do to make yourself feel safe, by all means. But most people who don't lose sleep over information like their retail shopping habits being indexed by retailers, and they're not any less aware than you are.

[spragger]

But if I'm in the early stages of dating, and the dude I'm dating gets curious and asks his buddy at the call center to look me up do I want him to know I bought a box of condoms a few weeks ago (and now I only have one left-heh.) Do I want him to know I was out of the city on a skiing trip last month? Do I want him to know I recently made a large purchase of anti-diarrhea pills? Do I want to give this guy my address? My landline number?

I would not mind him knowing about it, but I would find it creepy if he had found it out by any other means than me mentioning it in conversation. So that is not an issue of me keeping things private, but how difficult I make it for people to be creepy stalkers.

[Maul the Koala]

Home address and how much a house worth are public records. What people do for a living can be garnered from census records. Income? Well, that would have to be self disclosed, such as a survey people fill out when they purchase the luxury goods, or if they had to register an account to make that purchase online.

Have you ever opened an account with a furniture store or appliance store for "Zero down, zero interest for a bazillion years" type offer? They ask for your income. One time I asked the store, "how much do I have to make per year to qualify to buy $X worth of furniture/appliances?" Turns out I needed to make some ridiculously low $5k/year to qualify for the $3k (or whatever purchase). So, there you go. I filled out the form, stating that I made $5k/year. It was true that I made at least $5k per year. I just didn't disclose how many times over I made that $5k/year.

That info was entered into some database. Somewhere, there is a group of people who think I am a poor soul who makes $5k per year.

So, when you are asked your income, unless it is very important for the person who is asking to know exactly how much you make, think twice about revealing that information, and think about to what extent you actually need to reveal your income.

I don't know how it is in the States but you can find annual income through someone's postal code here. I believe that information isn't based on self-disclosed information.

[icecreamycakeycake]

How did you search their email addresses? Like accessing their account or just plugging their email addresses in a search engine?

I didn't do the searching, but they would google the email addy used to register, along with their name, and address. There would be notes in the order info after the order was approved. I could see the notes when I looked at the order info, which my co-workers and I would occasionally do if the order was really large or the name was familiar. I don't know what the threshold was for sending the order for review, a 20k purchase never stood out to us, but the 50-100k would sometimes make us curious.

[aimee]

Yes, I am comfortable sharing ALL of my information. I had my SSN put on my license plate.

Srsly, you do seem very concerned about this and that's fine. As I stated, use cash and do whatever you need to do to make yourself feel safe, by all means. But most people who don't lose sleep over information like their retail shopping habits being indexed by retailers, and they're not any less aware than you are.

Dear Austin,

Of course everyone has considered all the aspects of using reward programs and how their information can be abused. I didn't know that. My apologies. Here I thought I had magical information that no one else in the whole wide world considered. Thanks for putting me straight. And now you can stop reading because I'm going to elaborate and you have better things to do than listen to the ranting of a paranoid fool.

Dear everyone else who might care,

Since I'm not the only one to address the topic of personal information being abused, I thought I would add to what I've already said. If anyone reading believes I'm overreacting or foolish, don't waste your time reading further. If you do have an interest, I would ask that you share the information with anyone who might benefit.

I am confident I have protected my personal information as best I can. Short of going off the grid and living in the forest, I think I've done what I can do. Part of what drives me to be cautious is seeing, first hand, how information can be abused. Severely abused.

Like that customer service rep who dates men solely based on the balance of their savings account, which can be calculated based on how many points he earns in a month. He thinks he's met a great woman who is really into him, but in fact she's only interested in his money. Or the customer service rep who does a friend a favour and looks up his husband's gas station purchases only to reveal he lied about where he went on business. For most people swiping their card when they fill up is just habit, but it can reveal your whereabouts when you might not want that. What about the email customer service rep who checks to see where her former partner is flying to on his holiday so she can arrange to be in the same city at the same time to arrange a "chance" encounter. Or the customer service agent who is looking to hire a new babysitter but anyone who has spent any money on booze won't be considered for the position. Or the agent who notices her husband bought condoms last month...but...he had a vasectomy a few years ago.

That was not meant to be an exhaustive list...just some examples of data collection gone wrong due to how the information was interpreted. Yeah, that info can come from a lot of other sources, but someone at a reward program is far more likely to do a bit of poking around than someone at a bank or someone working for the government. And if you are looking at hundreds of accounts every day, it's pretty safe to assume no one is going to find you out.

And that's just some of the stuff I personally know of. I've a fairly decent imagination but I'm sure it can't fathom all the ways that innocent information can become pretty sinister, pretty fast.

What I am attempting to get across is think twice about joining reward programs using your genuine information, use rewards programs using false information or just skip them altogether.

Having said that, folks should also be cautious about joining said programs under a bogus name. There are people who might just have a couple hundred dollars worth of rewards in their accounts and if they lose access to it, bah, whatever, easy come easy go and all that. But people who are serious about collecting might have thousands and thousands of dollars in their accounts if they spend a lot of money or are very aggressive shoppers. Should that person with the juicy account need to PROVE they are the genuine account holder, they will likely be asked for ID to prove it. If you can't produce ID that proves you are Mr Fluffy McLovin, you run the risk of losing everything you have collected. If it's under a false name and you divorce your spouse, the account can't be split in half and one person gets all of it, even if you've both made contributions and so on.

If you plan to jack up a whole pot of points but don't want to use your full name, consider enrolling under a variation of your name, say, your last name as your first and your middle as your last or use your first initial, not your entire name (that sounded confusing but, yeah, mix it up.) That way, should you need to show proof of ownership your ID will show that there was an "error" when you were entered into the system.

If there are "juicy" bits to your shopping habits, simply refrain from earning points on those purchases that might reveal more than you're comfortable with. If you're a douchbag cheating on your partner, don't earn points on hotel stays, for example. If you don't want the public to know how much you spend on alcohol, don't use your card on those purchases. Just because you don't want to make that public doesn't mean you have to opt out of programs altogether.

If you for some reason feel you may separate from your spouse, make sure you are the only one using the account so you don't have to split your rewards in half come divorce time.

If you're one of those people collecting mega points, consider adding the account to your assets in your will so the points aren't lost in the event of your death.

If there is one store or location in particular that you frequently collect points at, start a small collection of receipts should you need to prove you've been the one collecting the points.

Keep a record of the phoney information you use so you can "verify" an account without ID. Just a note of the fake phone number, email address, DOB and mailing address would be good. That way, you can "verify" that info and if need be, give them the correct information if that's what you need to cash in your points.

Keep a list of all your mailing address and phone numbers and email addresses again, for the purpose of proving you own an account. If you set the account up 10 years ago and used the address you crashed at for 2 months after you left uni - you might not be able to easily recall that information so a list of all the possible addresses etc you might have used could come in handy some day.

If you are asked to verify an account but you can't remember an old address, ask friends or relatives to check their address books for you, there's a chance they might still have record of it.

[Guest Anonymous]

Dear Austin,

Of course everyone has considered all the aspects of using reward programs and how their information can be abused. I didn't know that. My apologies. Here I thought I had magical information that no one else in the whole wide world considered. Thanks for putting me straight. And now you can stop reading because I'm going to elaborate and you have better things to do than listen to the ranting of a paranoid fool.

Dear everyone else who might care,

Since I'm not the only one to address the topic of personal information being abused, I thought I would add to what I've already said. If anyone reading believes I'm overreacting or foolish, don't waste your time reading further. If you do have an interest, I would ask that you share the information with anyone who might benefit.

I am confident I have protected my personal information as best I can. Short of going off the grid and living in the forest, I think I've done what I can do. Part of what drives me to be cautious is seeing, first hand, how information can be abused. Severely abused.

Like that customer service rep who dates men solely based on the balance of their savings account, which can be calculated based on how many points he earns in a month. He thinks he's met a great woman who is really into him, but in fact she's only interested in his money. Or the customer service rep who does a friend a favour and looks up his husband's gas station purchases only to reveal he lied about where he went on business. For most people swiping their card when they fill up is just habit, but it can reveal your whereabouts when you might not want that. What about the email customer service rep who checks to see where her former partner is flying to on his holiday so she can arrange to be in the same city at the same time to arrange a "chance" encounter. Or the customer service agent who is looking to hire a new babysitter but anyone who has spent any money on booze won't be considered for the position. Or the agent who notices her husband bought condoms last month...but...he had a vasectomy a few years ago.

That was not meant to be an exhaustive list...just some examples of data collection gone wrong due to how the information was interpreted. Yeah, that info can come from a lot of other sources, but someone at a reward program is far more likely to do a bit of poking around than someone at a bank or someone working for the government. And if you are looking at hundreds of accounts every day, it's pretty safe to assume no one is going to find you out.

And that's just some of the stuff I personally know of. I've a fairly decent imagination but I'm sure it can't fathom all the ways that innocent information can become pretty sinister, pretty fast.

What I am attempting to get across is think twice about joining reward programs using your genuine information, use rewards programs using false information or just skip them altogether.

Having said that, folks should also be cautious about joining said programs under a bogus name. There are people who might just have a couple hundred dollars worth of rewards in their accounts and if they lose access to it, bah, whatever, easy come easy go and all that. But people who are serious about collecting might have thousands and thousands of dollars in their accounts if they spend a lot of money or are very aggressive shoppers. Should that person with the juicy account need to PROVE they are the genuine account holder, they will likely be asked for ID to prove it. If you can't produce ID that proves you are Mr Fluffy McLovin, you run the risk of losing everything you have collected. If it's under a false name and you divorce your spouse, the account can't be split in half and one person gets all of it, even if you've both made contributions and so on.

If you plan to jack up a whole pot of points but don't want to use your full name, consider enrolling under a variation of your name, say, your last name as your first and your middle as your last or use your first initial, not your entire name (that sounded confusing but, yeah, mix it up.) That way, should you need to show proof of ownership your ID will show that there was an "error" when you were entered into the system.

If there are "juicy" bits to your shopping habits, simply refrain from earning points on those purchases that might reveal more than you're comfortable with. If you're a douchbag cheating on your partner, don't earn points on hotel stays, for example. If you don't want the public to know how much you spend on alcohol, don't use your card on those purchases. Just because you don't want to make that public doesn't mean you have to opt out of programs altogether.

If you for some reason feel you may separate from your spouse, make sure you are the only one using the account so you don't have to split your rewards in half come divorce time.

If you're one of those people collecting mega points, consider adding the account to your assets in your will so the points aren't lost in the event of your death.

If there is one store or location in particular that you frequently collect points at, start a small collection of receipts should you need to prove you've been the one collecting the points.

Keep a record of the phoney information you use so you can "verify" an account without ID. Just a note of the fake phone number, email address, DOB and mailing address would be good. That way, you can "verify" that info and if need be, give them the correct information if that's what you need to cash in your points.

Keep a list of all your mailing address and phone numbers and email addresses again, for the purpose of proving you own an account. If you set the account up 10 years ago and used the address you crashed at for 2 months after you left uni - you might not be able to easily recall that information so a list of all the possible addresses etc you might have used could come in handy some day.

If you are asked to verify an account but you can't remember an old address, ask friends or relatives to check their address books for you, there's a chance they might still have record of it.

Whoa... you're sounding like a weird spammer now.... :lol:

Just in case you are for real: I'm guessing that your forum email addy isn't your 'real' one, but fyi, it is visible to everyone on here and you can remove it if you wish....