Data proliferates in our society
and the temptation is ever present for companies to abuse it. Sometimes it's
extremely creepy when they do.
Take FedEx.
Recently, when the battery finally went
totally kaput on my old dumbphone, I was obliged to buy a smarter one. Verizon,
the company I chose to buy it from, shipped it using FedEx.
FedEx tried to deliver it and I
wasn't there. The notice they left gave me the option of picking it up that day
or leaving a signature absolving them of any financial responsibility should
they leave an expensive phone on my doorstep.
I couldn't pick it up that day so I
tried to go online to have them hold it at the FedEx warehouse. As part of
that, they asked me to sign up for a FedEx account. Which I tried to do. Until
the end of the process where they said they needed to ask a few questions to
make sure I was who I said I was.
As if my name, address, email,
tracking number, and driver's license when I picked it up weren't sufficient.
The questions were multiple choice.
I was prompted to select which choice was relevant to my life. One was when my
house was built. One was where I lived last. One was the name of a person
living in Tacoma. One of those name choices was my second ex-wife.
FedEx had data from two places
where I lived and one where my ex from two marriages ago lived. Spooky. Find me
a foil hat.
I paranoidly cancelled everything
out. The next day I got an email from FedEx blithely informing me my account
had been successfully opened. Perhaps my former wife vouched for me.
Maybe that's what the Ex in FedEx
stands for.
America, ya gotta love it.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment