paflyer
Final Approach
No one likes a rat.
Privacy, the cloud, and taxes(a rant)
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RJM62
Touchdown! Greaser!
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Geek on the Hill
So now it turns out that the software my accountant uses may have been breached, so I qualify for another year of useless identity theft monitoring. Unfortunately, it's from a different company so I can't daisy-chain it to one of the existing ones to extend it for a year.
Not that it's worth a **** anyway, but it's getting to the point that I'm wondering whether all these identity theft protection subscriptions are starting to become security risks themselves. They're that many more places that are storing my PII, with all the human technological risks inherent thereto. The data may be encrypted, but in order to be useful there has to be some way to decrypt it. Who has access to that mechanism? Where do they live? How well are they paid? How were they screened? Why should I trust them?
I really don't think I have any choice other than security freezes at this point. They're a pain in the ass (especially Equifax, whose Security Freeze portion of their site works as well as if it had been built by a 12-year-old with an old copy of Front Page); but I don't think I have much of a choice at this point. I froze all three yesterday and will send the supporting documents by Certified Mail tomorrow, as required by NYS law to activate the fee exemption and some other protections afforded by the state.
One thing I'm happy about is that I've always refused to provide my checking account information to my accountant for direct debit of my taxes due. I just write "REFUSE" on the form and pay my taxes through a third party (Official Payments for IRS and whatever processor NYS is using at any given time, currently Wells Fargo, for state taxes). I certainly don't think either company is bulletproof (especially Wells Fargo); but at least they have a vested interest in data security, which is something that can't be said for government. The federal government has already exposed my PII at least twice; and I wouldn't trust the buffoons in NYS government to protect an ice cream cone from a toddler, much less my PII from hackers.
Rich
Not that it's worth a **** anyway, but it's getting to the point that I'm wondering whether all these identity theft protection subscriptions are starting to become security risks themselves. They're that many more places that are storing my PII, with all the human technological risks inherent thereto. The data may be encrypted, but in order to be useful there has to be some way to decrypt it. Who has access to that mechanism? Where do they live? How well are they paid? How were they screened? Why should I trust them?
I really don't think I have any choice other than security freezes at this point. They're a pain in the ass (especially Equifax, whose Security Freeze portion of their site works as well as if it had been built by a 12-year-old with an old copy of Front Page); but I don't think I have much of a choice at this point. I froze all three yesterday and will send the supporting documents by Certified Mail tomorrow, as required by NYS law to activate the fee exemption and some other protections afforded by the state.
One thing I'm happy about is that I've always refused to provide my checking account information to my accountant for direct debit of my taxes due. I just write "REFUSE" on the form and pay my taxes through a third party (Official Payments for IRS and whatever processor NYS is using at any given time, currently Wells Fargo, for state taxes). I certainly don't think either company is bulletproof (especially Wells Fargo); but at least they have a vested interest in data security, which is something that can't be said for government. The federal government has already exposed my PII at least twice; and I wouldn't trust the buffoons in NYS government to protect an ice cream cone from a toddler, much less my PII from hackers.
Rich
Rykymus
Line Up and Wait
I look at it this way. It's like your home alarm system. No matter how much you try to make your home an impenetrable vault, there will always be someone who has the skills to get into it. Better to just not inadvertently give them a desire to break in.
I don't store stuff on the cloud. (Just like I don't store my car in someone else's garage.) I don't use encryption on my drive. I back everything up, and update an offsite backup every month that goes into my safe deposit box. I keep my computer clean with basic antivirus and a little commonsense, (like not surfing porn sites or clicking on every fishing email that comes in) and I change passwords on important things like bank websites, paypal, etcetera, every few months. Other than that, I'm not going to waste my precious time worrying about getting hacked, or getting my identity stolen. I take reasonable precautions, as one should, but if it happens it happens...I'll deal with it.
I don't store stuff on the cloud. (Just like I don't store my car in someone else's garage.) I don't use encryption on my drive. I back everything up, and update an offsite backup every month that goes into my safe deposit box. I keep my computer clean with basic antivirus and a little commonsense, (like not surfing porn sites or clicking on every fishing email that comes in) and I change passwords on important things like bank websites, paypal, etcetera, every few months. Other than that, I'm not going to waste my precious time worrying about getting hacked, or getting my identity stolen. I take reasonable precautions, as one should, but if it happens it happens...I'll deal with it.
RJM62
Touchdown! Greaser!
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Geek on the Hill
RJM62
Touchdown! Greaser!
- Joined
- Jun 15, 2007
- Messages
- 13,157
- Location
- Upstate New York
- Display Name
Display name:
Geek on the Hill
On a positive note, once all the class action suits settle, we'll each get $18.00 and an Equifax mouse pad.
Rich
Rich
How does "if they don't want to provide it, that's ok" alienating anyone?
paflyer
Final Approach
Necropost, but if you're asked by a vendor for your SSN so they are covered if just in case you decide to stiff them at some later date, you wouldn't tell them to pound sand and go elsewhere?
If you're going to tell me to pound sand if I expect you to either pay for the services I'm providing you or give me an ssn, I'd tell you to pound the sand yourself.
And I didn't resurrect the thread, so you can pound sand about that too.
paflyer
Final Approach
Go re-read JOhn post; he said he asks for it regardless if you are paying now or not.If you're going to tell me to pound sand if I expect you to either pay for the services I'm providing you or give me an ssn, I'd tell you to pound the sand yourself.
And I didn't resurrect the thread, so you can pound sand about that too.
I read it just fine. There's no way a reasonable person would find that policy offensive.
mscard88
Touchdown! Greaser!
paflyer
Final Approach
Do you give your SSN to anyone who asks for it?
paflyer
Final Approach
Yep, there sure are a lot of clueless tools on this site.
If I expect them to provide me services without me paying for them? I don't generally do that, but yeah, probably. If I expected them to give me credit, I wouldn't be offended that they want my SSN.
Gerhardt
En-Route
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Gerhardt
The company I work for requires SSN from customers. I disagree with the requirement but was told by our attorneys that they're not REQUIRED to give it...just that if they don't they can't do business with us. Pfft. It should be illegal to require someone's SSN by anyone other than the SSA.
With that said, I'm pretty sloppy with giving out my information. Giving it out just makes life easier. I give it to my doctor, my dentist, the state Dept. of Rev., the IRS, the banks, etc. They all REQUIRE it, so there's really no easy way around it.
With that said, I'm pretty sloppy with giving out my information. Giving it out just makes life easier. I give it to my doctor, my dentist, the state Dept. of Rev., the IRS, the banks, etc. They all REQUIRE it, so there's really no easy way around it.
paflyer
Final Approach
But if you are NOT being extended credit then it's pretty ballsy to be asked for information usually needed to check for credit "worthiness."
paflyer
Final Approach
If you pay your doctor or dentist in full at the time of service then they have no business asking for your SSN.