10 April 2011

Big Brother/Pharmacy

So, I was registering with the Walgreens website for the purpose of streamlining prescription refills... believe me, no one wants me missing my prescription...

I filled out the normal stuff. Name, address, that sort of thing. Or rather, I put in the information I want them to think, so as to protect my privacy.

OKAY... I had my computer input that for me, because I didn't feel up to typing.

So, anyway, I filled that out. Then, it said it wanted to verify my identity. I was expecting it to send me an e-mail with a link for me to reply to. Lots of sites do that. But instead it asked me a series of questions.

  • Which street, if any, was your listed residence before the one where you currently live?
Simple enough... I've filled prescriptions at Walgreens before. They have me on record for both addresses.
  • Which model of vehicle is currently registered at your current address?
No probl.... waitaminute! My car is on the list. How did they know that?
  • What is the year of manufacture of your Suzuki Sidekick?
Hey! That was my last car! How in heck...

OK, now I know that Big Brother wacheth and all that stuff. I'm ex-military, working for a defense contractor, and my father is a nut-job conspiracy theorist (the smart kind, who's actually right). So it doesn't surprise me that information like this can be had. But this is a simple registration on a website. A pharmacy website! AND I DIDN'T EVEN GIVE IT MY SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBER OR DRIVER'S LICENSE NUMBER!

Scary, huh? I've tried to be careful before, not giving out my real information when I don't have to, obfuscating things, and remembering what I tell whom, and keeping stuff to myself. I don't "own" any credit cards. I have no outstanding loans, apart from my vehicle, which was a non-credit-check purchase that will be paid off in a few months. (Instead of non-payment going on my credit, they have a tracking device on the vehicle, which is, itself, scary.) Even my own daughter doesn't know what my actual face looks like. She's only seen me pixelated.

But this... a drug store... I shudder to think what dirt Wal-mart and Kroger's have on me!