A few years ago I was in a doctor's office and one of the assistants said, in earshot of everyone in the office, “Is your social security number 123-45-6789?” (No, that's not my real social security number.) My response: “Gee, could you say that a little louder?” (She probably could have, but didn't.)
Similarly, one of the banks I do business with has kind of a poor setup for the drive-thru window. While I'm doing a transaction at the teller window, I can hear the entire transaction of someone going through the drive-thru, because the customer's voice is put over a loudspeaker inside the bank! Not good.
I'm usually able to deposit money without saying anything beyond “I'm fine,” “Nope, that's it” and “Thank you!” It's not that hard, really. I've figured out what the teller needs to have in order to complete the transaction — things like my ID, my account number, and what accounts I want the money deposited in. Most of these things are written on the checks I want to deposit. It's probably not the end of the world if someone overhears my account number, considering all of the other checks in place to verify my identity. But why spread it around if I don't really have to?
I hear you. The more "confidential" information about you that is out there, the better the chance you become an identity theft victim. But there are still some pretty silly procedures out there.
One of those I find most annoying is the requirement from the Internal Revenue Service that you write your social security number on your checks. Gee, it's not like a whole bunch of people (IRS employees and otherwise) aren't going to see that.
Tell me about it. I have been changing eye doctors annually because I have yet to find someone good. The last one I went too took all of my insurance cards and proceeded to call all of them to see what my benefits are. When they called the representative asked them for my social security number which the guy said out load. The waiting room wasn't full – just me, but I will never go back there again.
No kidding — you'd think with how prevalent identity theft is becoming, they'd be taking more precautions to protect patient information. And when I go to the bank, I have my debit card linked to my checking and savings, so I just send up checks and money to the teller along with my debit card, so they can just swipe it and get all my info without having to ask for it out loud. Yesterday the teller for the car next to me was so loud, I could hear the whole conversation. They really should come up with a new strategy.
It's definitely frustrating; as careful as we try to be, it's people like that who are going to cause us to be hit. Who needs to be a high tech computer hacker to steal somebody's identity when they're making it this easy?
What about genetic confidentiality???
I mean I have been asked 4 times to OPT out of the hospital taking and using MY blood for genetic testing as well as every patient who enters.
WTF?
Are we also giving the after birth for scientific government research and experimentation? Privacy of your identity and body are losing its place as private any more.