Big Brother has your number

7 September, 2007 (10:51) | Personal Thoughts, My Job

This isn’t really related directly to PPC, but it is related to running a small business and more generally to our government’s creeping incursions into the privacy of its citizens.

I applied for a line of credit with the SBA for reasons that escape me at the moment. I think I thought it’d be good to have the credit history at some point since I reorganized my company when I moved from California. Anyway, the SBA provides a relatively cheap way to get a credit line established with a minimum of fuss.

Now, for this story to work, you need to know that I’ve been married twice. The first one… was a bad move on my part and didn’t last very long. It ended about 12 years ago. Also, I have several brothers, and I’ve volunteered my time for several charities in the past.

I would have thought that learning all that about me would require that I tell you or that you hire a private investigator. I wouldn’t have guessed in either case that you’d learn my ex-wife’s parents’ address.

OK, so, the bank calls and says: “For your security, we need to ask you some personal questions, and they could go back 30 years(!).” These are multiple choice questions. That is, they know the answers.

- When is your ex-wife’s birthday? (They used her name.)
- What county is your ex-wife’s parents’ house in? (They knew the street address.)
- What state does your next older brother live in? (By name.)
- What age range does your oldest brother fall in? (Also by name and birthdays.)
- Have you ever been affiliated with this charity? (By name.)

I don’t remember the rest, but you get the idea. They know everything about me going back at least 15 years. Why do they need to know that? My mother’s maiden name and my social security number don’t cut it? They have to keep tabs on me like some terrorist sleeper cell member? I’m a native-born citizen. I’m not a felon. I’m a business person and employer. I vote. I pay (great loads of) taxes. I don’t want that information being handed around from bureaucrat to bureaucrat. Clearly, it’s not anything I’m hiding. It’s just not anyone’s business.

I think I have to agree with whoever said that the only thing that’s keeping the United States from slipping completely into fascism is sheer incompetence.

Heckuva job, Brownie!