I returned an item at Canadian Tire today and they wanted to create a customer profile and collect information from my drivers license to create the profile. Name, address, telephone #, DOB. I refused because after Home Depot I am very cautious about giving out trackable information. And after reading Ronjor's great articles on Data Brokers I am even more paranoid. They told me they needed to collect this information to process the return. They assured me that the information is kept private (lol I believe that). Am I being unreasonable in refusing this request? Is there any legal way to get around this problem? I am assuming that in Canada generating false identities is probably illegal.
So went to another Canadian Tire today and told them I didnt have a drivers license, only passport. She issued a refund and didnt even put the right name into the system. She told me they have been told to get drivers license info whenever they can. Somebody needs to write the "guide to living paranoid"
No, you're not wrong. Yes, yes they surely do. For all the computer privacy, it's near impossible to actually live in the real world privately unless you're practically put under witness protection. It gets worse in the medical industry, HIPPA laws aside. It's a wonderfully bureaucratic, play it safe system designed to keep them safe from you. Even the most basic of care requires practically a DNA sample and a family history that goes back 10 generations, along with all your personal vices and relationships listed- all stored "securely". Can we not just do anything anymore without getting messed with?
Your experience in healthcare seems different to mine. I had to explain why doing excel data dumps of patient records and then emailing them was a really bad idea.
I read a book in the 1990s from a guy that was an 'expert' in remaining hidden, and privacy in general. Remarkable book, too dated to be valuable today, but some of the things in the book may still be relevant. He updated it in 2012, but I have not read the updated one. http://www.amazon.com/How-Be-Invisible-Protect-Children/dp/1250010454/ I'm pretty confident with my former security clearance+awareness, experience, and book knowledge I would be able to totally liquidate myself from most tracing if I really wanted to. For now I don't care much about doing it religiously, only a sort of half-baked way. For example every photograph I store in cloud is encrypted so they can't be fingerprinted, since wholesale fingerprinting is taking place now.
Thanks Mayahana, ordered it along with Dragnet Nation. For cloud I use a program called Owncloud. Allows you to setup your own hosted cloud. As a bonus they have Android apps which handle the auto camera uploading side of things.
Read the first half of how to be invisible. There are some great hints in there that I am going to slowly start applying over time. There are some aspects that arent as relevant in Canada. My biggest challenge will be disconnecting the money trail given how hard it is to live on cash. Might end up spending less money.
That does sound interesting. Again, for all the computer knowledge not many know how to actually live privately, especially given the identity theft and whatnot.
This reminded me of an argument I heard the other day at a gas station a girl was saying she had submitted a job application the manager told her they had misplaced it and asked her to fill out another one, she was saying what do you mean misplaced it ? That application has my name, my address, my email address, my cell phone number, my social security number and my drivers license number on it !!
