Lab Notes

In this week's TidBITS, Adam Engst details having his credit card number stolen, likely as a consequence of online shopping. I've had credit card numbers stolen twice. The first time was by an old-fashioned dumpster diver. Five years ago my AMEX number was obtained by somebody digging through my trash who used it to buy thousands of dollars worth of A/V gear over the phone. The police has no trouble tracking the guy down since he was stupid enough to have the equipment shipped to his home address. The theft didn't cost me anything but the price of a paper shredder, which I now use religiously.

The second theft was more insidious, and is demonstrative of the pervasive lack of privacy today. My MBNA Visa card was used to charge large amounts of money at retail stores in the Atlanta area. I don't carry my Visa card with me, and I hadn't been to Atlanta in years. Not coincidentally, MBNA's Southern Regional Headquarters is located in Atlanta. It was an inside job all the way, which is the risk you run when you give thousands of employees access to the private records of millions of customers. The overwhelming majority of MBNA's employees are honest, but all it takes is one bad apple. A look at the weekly parade of privacy abuses shows that something needs to be done.