Friday, July 10, 2015

I changed my mind. I am alarmed by how much personal information about each of us is being computerized and stored.



Yesterday I was signing up for this free credit monitoring service the government is offering to those of us that had all our personal information hacked (Over 18 million served!).  At the end of the sign up form, there were a number of questions that were asked with the up front intention of making sure it was really me that was on the other end filling out this form.  (A bit "Locking the barn door after the horse is gone" kind of thing to me, but whatever.)  The last question asked what street address was I previously associated with.  One of the answers was a street name of the apartment I had back in the 80's. I can see where that came from, from old banking or credit card info, and I would expect a credit monitoring service to have access to that info.  Ok, that was the answer.  HOWEVER, another of the multiple choice answers was the last name of the girlfriend I had in college!  So, how in the living HECK did this credit service get that particular piece of information?!?  It isn't just some "usual" name like Johnson or Williams, so I have a difficult time believing that was just a Big Time Coincidence.  But what the heck?  I haven't been in touch with her, by either phone call or letter, since the early 80's and she certainly isn't in my friends thing in Facebook.  How did they get that name?  I am not one of the government workers who had to apply for a security clearance, so the government never contacted any of my friends or relations....

Jeez...  That's pretty scary to think of what else these various computerized systems they store on all of us.


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