So last week I am filling out paperwork to get this guy signed up on new credit card service. In the paperwork it requires all the basic business information AND it requires the personal information (of the owner/president). So I normally fly through these questions and people have no problems with the personal ones. Is it crazy to anyone that people don’t hesitate over giving up their social security number, DOB, or home address? I am so used to it that when you get the one person that puts up a fight it is comes off as almost a shock to me. WHAT? You don’t want to give me your social security number?
So I am sitting with this guy who is mobile (he works out of his vehicle). We are inside a McDonalds with the paperwork spread out. I am asking him all the basic info and I get to the address of his business. Because he is mobile he is supposed to defer to his home address. He starts of babbling a PO box. I explain they can’t use a PO box because they have to be able to tie this business to a physical address. He said he doesn’t have one. I know he lives in a home because by this point I know more about the guy than I really want to. He said he doesn’t want to give me his home address because the police are after him.
So I go from my writing to position (hunched over filling out paperwork) to my therapist position (leaning back in my seat with my arms crossed over my chest). “This is gonna be good,” I think to myself. He proceeds to tell me that the cops have been showing up at his house for no apparent reason. It gets better. They don’t just show up, they beat on his door and shine flashlights into his windows. Wait it gets better. Then when he comes to the door, they pull him out and beat him up. Gotta love those government employees. Wait, what? “They come and beat you up?” I screech.
“Yeah, so I don’t want anyone having my home address,” he answers back to me.
I am sitting there thinking, “ How do I respond to that?” There were so many routes I wanted to take:
Route 1: “So let me get this straight. Instead of the donut break they take a beat-up break? They show up for no apparent reason and beat the crap out of you?” This guy has already spilled his life story, and in that life story he has informed me that he has a foster child. So naturally along with my confusion about the police, I wonder what has gone so wrong with CPS that they hand a child to a. a man that has police at his house nightly, or b. someone who is so crazy he thinks the police are at his house nightly. “Why are they beating you up? Do they take you to jail or just show up and kick the crap out of you?”...oh so many questions and so little time.
Route 2: “Are you hearing the voices right now?”
Route 3: “I know, they show up at my house too. Stupid overweight cops. You would think they have something better to do, right? I have invited them in, but NOPE, they would rather beat me up. Just pull me right out on my stoop and kick me in the side until I am spitting blood. It’s probably because they are union. Those unions have America by the balls. So I’m in the same boat as you...stupid cops. So what is your home address?”
Route 4 (and the route I decide to take): “Wow, well we need some kind of physical address. They aren’t going to sell your address, or give it to anyone on the streets. I need an actual address in order to set this up.”
He ends up giving me his home address, and interestingly enough doesn’t hesitate over giving me his social security number or DOB.
This really gets me thinking. Why do we need privacy? I ask the Little Man, “If you aren’t doing anything wrong, what do you have to hide?” Although I say this, I know he is entitled to privacy. We all are. Privacy is a human right, and without it we are stripped of our dignity and respect. Most of us (born after 1970) don’t think anything of doing things online. Our phones are attached to our hips and we do our banking online. Some even twitter where they are every ten steps they take. We check our emails every ten minutes and buy things with our credit cards without ever leaving our homes. We rely on this idea called the “internet”. Then you have others (much older generation) that refuse to do things online. They go to the bank the old fashioned way. They write checks (with those long thin things that have ink that comes out), stick it in the envelope, and put an actual stamp on it before walking down to the mailbox and sending it off in the snail mail. They have this fear...fear is almost an understatement...they have this phobia that typing their name into a computer is like standing in a crowd of people and stripping down to bare skin.
This is really two very different problems. How is the government invading our privacy, and how people react to giving away their personal information. The problem I am talking about is the lesser of the two evils. I know that these older folks fear having their identity stolen, but how often does that really happen? Surprisingly, 9 out of 10 business owners give me their social without thinking twice. I give mine out without a worry in the world. It is the way society has been trained. In this job I sell credit card terminals. I am STILL shocked when I come across businesses that don’t take credit cards. How do people pay you? I don‘t know about you, but I don’t even carry cash or checks. I put everything on the card, as do most Americans. Why do people think credit cards are so horrible? I had a guy a couple weeks ago that thought I was there about his PERSONAL credit card. Once he found out I was there to try to get him to accept credit cards at his business he nearly pushed me out the door. His eyes got big and he barked, “I WANT NOTHING TO DO WITH YOU PEOPLE, LEAVE NOW!” Really? YOU PEOPLE? Did he seriously just profile me? I turned around and walked out, mumbling under my breath, “YOU are a freak.” But is he? Are credit cards really a horrible thing? Can you imagine society going to back cash and check? I know this is just a matter of opinion, but society is definitely pushing one direction. Next time you are leaving a movie, get to the door and then turn around and try walking back to your seat. How easy is it? Probably not a piece of cake considering you have a hundred people walking in the opposite direction.
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