Jon's Blog

Who wants to know?

OK, I'm convinced. Americans are under surveillance. I'm not sure by whom, exactly--and it probably depends on where you are anyway--but whatever the case, there's always someone who wants to know who you are, where you are, and what you're doing. It is time for "we the people" to stop playing into their hand.

Maybe it's the federal government, maybe it's a private corporation trying to maintain a "target market" database. You can be fairly certain that the person asking for your information doesn't know, and doesn't care. Case in point: while travelling with my family, we stopped at a Comfort Inn late one night. On a whim, I gave the clerk a false last name and paid for our room in advance, in cash. She asked to see my driver's license!

"You mean you're supposed to check my driver's license even if I'm paying cash? Somebody sure wants to know who's staying here," I said. "Yeah," she replied, "I don't know where these new rules came from...I wish they'd just toss 'em out the window. Can I see your license?"

"What if I don't want to show it to you?"

"I can just say you didn't want to show it to me."

"OK, then, I don't want to show it to you."

I also had to refuse to give her my address, though I condescended to give her my ZIP code. The worst thing, in my opinion, is that 99% of Americans would have given her whatever she asked for: driver's license, social security number, mother's maiden name, or whatever, without asking any questions or even considering why that information could possibly be needed by a motel, or what they might do with the information once they had it. The same 99% of Americans would be shocked to discover that the manager of the Comfort Inn might have all the information he needs to assume their identity whenever he so chooses.

The same 99% would also wonder why we get all these telemarketing calls and junk mail. Gee, where could they have come up with my address and phone number? And then we expect the government--which is one of the entities seeking our private information in the first place--to set up "no call" lists (which, you will notice, don't apply to most of the telemarketing calls you receive) and other "services" to rescue us from our own stupidity.

Most of us think, for some reason, that if we deny a stranger any information, then they'll be hurt and offended, which will give us a cold prickly feeling inside. All I can say is, GET OVER IT. Guard your privacy like a treasure. Keep your private information private, and don't give it out to anyone unless you know for a fact that it is necessary for the circumstances at hand. Believe me, the clerks will get over it, and many of them will silently thank you for taking a stand against the unnecessary collection of information. Do you think they like grilling people for personal information? They'll almost certainly be relieved if you say, "If you don't mind, I'd rather not give out that information," and if they're part of the nosy minority, you can generally put the matter to rest by saying, "I'm sorry, but I do not give out that information." If they get obtuse about it, then take your business elsewhere--and be sure to tell them why you are doing so.

Posted by jon at July 18, 2003 09:23 PM