Reminded once again today during a once-monthly stop at the bank (which only makes the whole thing even more aggravating, since I hardly have the need to interact with people outside of the house these days at all, with these minor exceptions, like the bank) that the world/powers-that-be are still hard at work eroding our privacy for no discernible positive effect.
I was depositing some checks that had accumulated around the house. I figured that I would save myself the step of getting money out of the ATM in the lobby by adding an amount of $20 to withdraw as cash on these checks.
There was a pair of guys behind the counter doing nothing. Just kind of staring at me. I’m not sure what that’s about. They didn’t help me.
When the teller finally arrived, I gave him my deposit slip, upon which I had written my name and account. I gave him my checks, which all had my name on them. He looked at them, flipped them over, then asked me for a diver’s license.
Ok, I understand this. If someone came in asking for $20 from my account with some bogus checks, then yes, I would like him to ask for ID, too. And since I don’t go to this branch often (like I said, maybe once a month since the new job) I don’t expect him to recognize me as they do at the branch I used to go to.
So I showed him my driver’s license, and he started to write it down.
I withheld my ID and asked him why he needed that. He told me that it was because I was getting $20 back. I gave him a look of disapproval and dropped the ID on the counter. He said that they ask everyone to do it.
Well, just because you unnecessarily steal the driver’s license numbers (which can be used for a number of things that you wouldn’t want them to be, if they somehow ended up in, for example, unshredded garbage that was picked through) of all of your customers doesn’t make it right! I told him that they shouldn’t do it to anyone.
Seriously, I understand the need to verify identity, but not the need to record it. After all, the bank has my social security number already, and I’ve shown that I am the person whose name is on all of my checks and the account number I produced. What would they need with my driver’s license number?
Moreover, I am a customer in good standing, and have been for many years. I have thousands of dollars in various accounts at their bank. I have investment portfolios there. I was depositing more than $4000 of checks that were verifiable, drawn on large banks, originating from companies that you would recognize. What possible reason would he have to record my license number under these circumstances?
I’m really getting tired of being treated as a criminal before I’m proven of doing anything wrong. As I said, I have no problem with prevention, but anything else is not required.
But this is how the system works. I’m not sorry to have offered the teller a hard time for having done this. If I annoy him, and he annoys his boss because he gets hassled by every customer, and his boss makes his bosses change corporate policy, then that’s how things get done. The trick here is that it’s going to require a body of people to annoy the tellers and start that chain. If everyone becomes complacent, if nobody wonders where this information is being used and what for, if nobody questions the stripping of their privacy, then no its never going to change. It’s only likely to get worse.
So yes, I blame you, reader, for allowing this idiotic process to become acceptable.
This irks me the same way as those alarms that go off when you “rob” a store. There is no impetus on the customer to stop his exit when those alarms go off. None. This alarm is a tool to be used by the proprietors of the store. If the alarm goes off, they should send someone to investigate. Suspect me of theft and check! Don’t expect me to stop because of some buzzing annoyance in your store.
That people have allowed this mechanism to replace human contact and common sense… That’s your fault. Change the system.
