Goodbye Amazon.com
Today I terminated my Amazon.com account.
Why did I do that? Because I went to another website (Kickstarter.com) to make a contribution. Kickstarter asked me to pay through Amazon.com. Amazon.com asked me to verify who I was by linking my account to either A) my birthdate or B) the last four digits of my SSN; and to select another verification question which also requested revealing personal information.
I declined to do so. Amazon.com's autobots informed me that I could not proceed without verifying who I was.
Sorry, kids, I don't need to give you that level of ID for a $25 donation.
I have a credit card so that I can give that information to *one* entity, not to all of you.
In reading the documentation from my credit card, however, it appears that they may very well be breaking my trust, and sharing that information with all of their other vendors, clients, and anyone who asks nicely. By extension, it may well be that someone armed with my credit card number (gleaned from my using it to by groceries) might be able to accumulate not only my birth date and SSN and where I live, but what I buy and where I work and pretty much put together my biography.
The Evil Future is here. It's a problem.
Why did I do that? Because I went to another website (Kickstarter.com) to make a contribution. Kickstarter asked me to pay through Amazon.com. Amazon.com asked me to verify who I was by linking my account to either A) my birthdate or B) the last four digits of my SSN; and to select another verification question which also requested revealing personal information.
I declined to do so. Amazon.com's autobots informed me that I could not proceed without verifying who I was.
Sorry, kids, I don't need to give you that level of ID for a $25 donation.
I have a credit card so that I can give that information to *one* entity, not to all of you.
In reading the documentation from my credit card, however, it appears that they may very well be breaking my trust, and sharing that information with all of their other vendors, clients, and anyone who asks nicely. By extension, it may well be that someone armed with my credit card number (gleaned from my using it to by groceries) might be able to accumulate not only my birth date and SSN and where I live, but what I buy and where I work and pretty much put together my biography.
The Evil Future is here. It's a problem.