I answered my phone this afternoon. Nothing unusual in that, but at the time I was busy trying to do a lot of other things to get the house cleaned up.
“This is _ from _. This call is being recorded. May I speak with James Husum?”
“That’s me.”
“Before this call can go any further I have to verify who I’m speaking with. I have your birthday as _.”
“No, you don’t get to verify me. Who are you and what is this about?”
“As I said, I’m _ from __, and I can’t tell you what this is about without verifying your identity.”
“Then I don’t need to talk to you.” I hung up the phone.
I don’t know _ from __ from Adam. I don’t know why he is calling me. And he wouldn’t tell me why he was calling me. Why, pray tell, am I supposed to verify my identity and give out my personal information in this case? For all I know this is a scam and he’s trying to steal my identity. He’s not giving me all his personal information so I can vet him before talking to him.
It seems more often these days everyone else is allowed to have my information but not give me any of their own. You have to fill out pages of information to buy a house, or a car, or insurance. Or apply for a job. Or start a business. Or buy anything online.
And what about credit scores? Why am I allowed to get my credit score for free once a year from each of the three agencies? It’s my information! I should be able to access it as many times as I want for free. Let the reporting agencies charge everyone else who wants to look at my credit score. And let me know when and why someone is checking my credit score.
I’m reminded of the book by David Brin, The Transparent Society. The basic premise of the book is that more people are getting access to our information, and we’re being tracked by government agencies, corporations and all of our activity on the Internet. If you get stopped by the police, they ask you where you are going? Why is that? All of this not only threatens our right to privacy but our freedom as well. Our lives are transparent but the people using that information for their own ends (which are not necessarily in our best interests) are becoming more anonymous. His premise is that a open society is more robust and sustainable than one ruled by secrecy.
I think a possible solution to everyone getting my information and not giving me any of their own would be some type of smart contract on a blockchain platform. I could have a secure ‘data vault’ of all my information – my personal info, my finances, my business information, my health information, etc. If someone wants to get some of my information, they would make a request. I should get right of approval to grant their request or not. And I should be able to get their contact information and basic business affiliation before verifying their request. The same rules would apply to everyone. If I want someone’s information I would need to make a request as well. If the whole thing is on a blockchain platform then the transactions of information exchange are recorded and publicly verifiable by anyone, just as cryptocurrency transactions are publicly verifiable.
It is a thorny issue, to be sure. But if you call me, demand my information so I can ‘verify my identity’ and not tell me who you are or why you are calling I can tell you this. All you’re going to do is piss me off. And guarantee I’m not going to be in a mood to cooperate with you.
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