Category Archives: privacy

Throw out the old flag along with the Constitution…

With the “Health Insurance” vote, it has become clear of the two major parties, there is one party of freedom and one party of totalitarianism.  Anyone intellectually honest knows the Constitution prohibits government actions such as this (or the Patriot Act for that matter). To see a document of enumerated, limited powers twisted into the opposite by power-hungry politicians sworn to protect and defend it is disgusting. The Founders are not just spinning in their graves, they have spun so fast they have completely disintegrated.  Just like the protections in the Constitution.

So, the United States can now throw out the old flag while Congress throws out the last vestiges of the Constitution.  As such, a more modern flag is needed.  Several contenders to replace the old “Stars and Stripes” with a more timely flag are shown below.

Which do you prefer?  Let us know in the comments!

Sickle and Strips
Sickle and Stripes - Option 1
Stars, Sickle and Stripes
Stars, Sickle and Stripes - Option 2
Star-sickle and Stripes
Star-sickle and Stripes - Option 3

AT&T and Mordecai Alpert again

[Moved to Jan 15, 2010 so it shows up lower on the site]

After numerous calls over the last few months, including several emails to privacy@att.com and assurances from them that they do protect client privacy, AT&T sent us Mordecai Alpert’s payment information from today.  AT&T has still refused to answer questions regarding how little they are doing to protect Mordecai Alpert’s privacy.

Thank You
Hello MORDECAI ALPERT,

Your payment has been received and will be applied to your wireless account.

  • Amount: 142.49
  • Date: 01/22/2010
  • Confirmation number: QPCODT618700871

We appreciate your business.

Thank you,
AT&T

This e-mail was auto generated. Please do not respond.

AT&T sends us Mordecai Alpert’s information again

Great privacy on AT&T’s part.  So, Mordecai Alpert, please call AT&T.  The AT&T representative said they didn’t care if the information was posted and that they couldn’t do anything to correct the problem without talking to Mordecai Alpert (in Delray, FL) since he is the account owner.  So, Mordecai, please call AT&T and ask them (a) why they do NOT verify email addresses, and (b) do not provide a link to let them know they are sending it to the wrong address.  Most importantly, ask them why they don’t follow their own privacy policy better.

Hello MORDECAI ALPERT:

Please contact AT&T Wireless regarding account number 523024065xxx at 1-800-947-5096. Thank You.

——————————-

Your Wireless Bill is Ready Online
Hello MORDECAI ALPERT,
Your monthly wireless bill (for account 523024065xxx ) is now available for review online.
Log in today to view your bill and make a payment.
Thank You,
AT&T

Your Wireless Bill is Ready Online

Hello MORDECAI ALPERT,
Your monthly wireless bill (for account 523024065xxx ) is now available for review online.Log in today to view your bill and make a payment.
Thank You,AT&T

—————–Update, January 11, 2010:

Thank You
Hello MORDECAI ALPERT,

Your payment has been received and will be applied to your wireless account.

  • Amount: 142.49
  • Date: 01/11/2010
  • Confirmation number: QPCODT613957xxx

We appreciate your business.

Thank you,
AT&T

This e-mail was auto generated. Please do not respond.
©2009 AT&T Intellectual Property. All rights reserved. AT&T and the AT&T logo are trademarks of AT&T Intellectual Property.

Verizon keeps sending someone else’s account information

Verizon keeps sending someone else’s account information and still pays only lip service to privacy and providing a method to letting them know they are doing so.  Perhaps they should have a coverage map that shows where they are leaking private information.  “Can you see my account information now?”  “Can you see it now?”
And Verizon won’t discuss removing our email address from their database and said they didn’t care what we did with information sent to it. [Which fits with our terms of service – anything sent to us may be published.]

Your Verizon Wireless Account Number ending with 1772-00001
Your current Verizon Wireless bill statement is now available for online viewing. The current balance due is $193.79.You can conveniently view your bill statement atwww.verizonwireless.com. The online bill is a restatement of your paper bill.

It’s easy to pay your Verizon Wireless bill. On the web, go to My Verizon at www.verizonwireless.com. On your cellular phone, you can access account information by dialing #PMT (airtime free).

Auto Bill Pay is Available!

  • Automatically pay your bill, in full, each month by signing up for Auto Bill Pay using your checking account or debit/credit card. For more information or to change your current payment method, go to My Verizon atwww.verizonwireless.com and select Auto Bill Pay.
  • Or, call us at 1-866-868-3882 to enroll.

Thank you for using Verizon Wireless.

…To review our Privacy Policy, click here.


Smith Barney, Intuit Payroll, and Amex update

Smith Barney sent a welcome message to Harold Bxxxxx, welcoming Harold B to Smith Barney online and another for account number ###-##099 being enrolled in E-Delivery with the last 3 SSN ending in 040.  Smith Barney, like others, links to their privacy policy, and does a wonderful job following it.  They do give an 800 number (800-221-3636) to call, but no link or email address to notify them.

Next we have Intuit QB Basic Payroll sending order # SBL36468501 for 243.89 to me for Grant Kxxxxx in Boca Raton, Florida with no reply address and no way to notify them that they are sending information to someone else.

An update on the American Express “Settlement and Payment Advice Report for SE No: 9740108691.”  American Express is still sending them.  While asking to be notified by email, but messages to their notification email address still bounce.

How about companies adopt a standard link at the end of their emails to notify them to review the address?

Best Buy sends credit card info!

Following in the footsteps of others, Best Buy and HSBC Bank send private information without a method of notifying them of their mistake.  They obviously do not bother to verify email addresses.   So, Tom H***** is getting information from Best Buy about his account ending in 8954 sent to us.

The kicker is that Best Buy and HSBC included the statement that  “We maintain strict security standards and procedures to prevent unauthorized access to information about you.”  I guess that is, unless of course HSBC and Best Buy send it to the wrong email address they do not bother to verify them.

After speaking with a supervisor, they intended to “try to find the account number” and delete it, but apparently there is no method for them to look up an account number by email address, name or last four digits.

Continental Sends someone else’s Flight check-in information

And yet another example for poor privacy practices by Continental Airlines sending me flight check-in information for “Annmrs Zgonena”.  Now it seems a bit strange that someone would be using an email address that does not belong to them to book a flight and the airlines wouldn’t know it.  But it is also amazing the amount of information they share including the confirmation number, complete itinerary and the food selection with a complete stranger.

To make matters worse, Continental provides no method to notify them that someone is not using their own email address to book a flight.



HomeDepot and private information

As a follow-up, HomeDepot is yet another company that plays fast and lose with your privacy.  Check the email out below.

Now in this same email, the Subject says “DO NOT REPLY.”  In the text HomeDepot says “This is an unmonitored mailbox; please do not reply directly to this e-mail.”  Then a few sentences further, it says “if this message has been sent to you in error, please immediately alert the sender by reply e-mail.”  The do include a link to their privacy policy (http://www.homedepot.com/privacy).  Fortunately OUR terms of service that apply to email sent to us, is that we may quote it here. Otherwise, emailing us is strictly forbidden.

HomeDepot should be including a link to report problems that are either fraud or honest errors.  Likewise, HomeDepot should take the time to proofread their emails in order to ensure that they make sense.

—————————————–

Fri, Nov 13, 2009 at 9:54 AM
subject DO NOT REPLY: The Home Depot Home Services Appointment Details [47638xx]
Dear: Paul Jxxxxxx,
Thank you for submitting your information with The Home Depot’s Installation Services:

Home Insulation

Our representatives will contact you within 24 to 48 hours.

This is an unmonitored mailbox; please do not reply directly to this e-mail.

If you are not the intended recipient of this message, or if this message has been sent to you in error, please immediately alert the sender by reply e-mail and then delete this message, including any attachments.

Health Insurance penalties

In the health care bill passed last Tuesday (10/13/2009) by the Senate Finance Committee, adults who do not purchase health insurance would face an excise-tax penalty of $200 a year starting in 2014 and rising gradually to $750 in 2017.

Let’s analyze this.  You can pay whatever you are paying per month now for insurance or you can forgo buying insurance and pay an annual penalty knowing that you can buy insurance later when you need it.  Simple trade-off there.  Pay $500/month for health insurance now or pay $200/year penalty and only pay the $500 when you need it.

If even a percentage of people wait until they are sick to get coverage, costs will go up on the people who do not try to cheat the system.

The Federal government has one method of making a “universal coverage” mandate viable:  huge taxes that everyone has to pay followed by jail if they don’t.  Every other method can, and will, be gamed.  Look at all the other government programs that people cheat on: from military purchases, to food stamps being, to Social Security (relatives of the dead still collecting), to Medicare, to Medicaid (dump your assets so you qualify) to taxes.  Government socialized health care will be no different.

Even ignoring the Constitutionality of it, do we really want jail time for not having health insurance in what is supposed to be free country?

Energy Secretary Dr. Steven Chu says we are “teenage kids”

The American public…just like your teenage kids, aren’t acting in a way that they should act. The American public has to really understand in their core how important this issue is. Dr. Chu, September 21, 2009

When government runs and funds sciences, the sciences are lost.  No more scientific inquiry.  Too much time licking the boots of their masters.  Remember there can be no scientific inquiry when the government controls you.  Government scientist is a contradiction in terms.  Let’s make a few points clear here:

1. You first, Dr Chu.  Then Al Gore, Prince Charles and all the other blow-hards running around in private jets, multiple huge houses (and so many some Members of Congress “forget” about them). You try it first.

2. It is none of your business what we do, this was founded as a free country with strict Constitutional limits of the powers of government.  Dr. Steven Chu needs to read his American History before he continues to spout fascist-socialist nonsense.

3. Fascism, statism and socialism are not what we want here.

4. Double-speak, thought police, might be acceptable in a totalitarian regime, but not in the United States.

5. Look at sunspots.  Read this [Climate modeling], and this [Al Gore’s house], and this [each leader at U.N. Climate Summit has convoy of vehicles].  “Do as I say, not as I do,” seems to be the motto.

We are not children, Dr. Chu.  We are a country of free individuals and taking orders from crack-pots is not in the plan.

Dr. Steven Chu needs to start with examining his history, his facts, and the Constitution.  After he is done all that, come back and talk to us again.  But the next time Dr. Steven Chu speaks to or about the American people, Chu better do it as equals.  An elitist, authoritarian, imperial set of rulers in Washington?  Is that what you want?