I have no idea what is a QR code, but I now know I will never use Walmart Pay. I am tired of marketers trying to glean, store, and use as much information about people as possible. We have too much of that already. In fact, I looked into "smart tellies" a while back and found out they pick up your information, too. Without even being used, they "listen" to what you say and use it without you even realising it. The option of getting a smart telly was off the table at that point.
It is getting worse than most of us realise. This is a bit of a long story, but I think it is worth sharing. Let me preface this story with a couple of facts. In the 1980s, I eradicated all junk mail coming to my home, and any time I relocate, I notify everyone individually of my new address. I do not submit a change of address notice to the post office. Now, this is one of the things that happened to me only this year.
Suddenly I began getting junk mail from a doctors's office. I never heard of them before, and I forget which type of medicine they practised, but they were one of those doctors's offices I deem non-independent. They were owned by either an insurance conglomerate or an hospital. I have a dear friend who has managed doctors's offices for many years, and she told me most doctors now are not in "private practise." She said they are owned by the hospitals. Anyway, I contacted the office and asked to be taken off their mailing list. I also contacted the "corporate" people who were allegedly responsible for sending out the junk mail for all of the doctors's office they "owned." Of course, two phone calls were not enough to get me off their list. I ended up belling them several times, and finally, I simply submitted a complaint to my state's licensing arm. It was the latter that has gotten this stopped finally, or so I have been told. All along the way, though, I found out some interesting things.
Firstly, they were sending this junk mail to me in a name I have not used in twenty years, and I had no idea how they got that name and this address combined because I lease my home and only friends and people with whom I do business are given my address. Anyway, once I belled the office and spoke to a "manager." By the way, that was another thing. It was literally impossible to bell their office and speak to anyone. All calls, including requests for appointments, etc., were directed to voice mail. No matter which day or time of day I belled them, my call was directed to voice mail. Well, I insisted that this manager tell me where they got my name because I had never been to their office, and the name had not been used for at least 20 years, probably longer. I was amazed by what she discovered.
Apparently, I had gone somewhere many years ago for some sort of test/procedure ordered by my own doctor ONCE. This company kept all of my information all these years!! I then asked the woman how on earth they connected that name to this address because over that long of a period, I had moved several times, including out of cities and even states, and I never submit change of address to the post office because I found out that is one way marketers get people's information--from the post office. She said she honestly had no idea how the name and address were linked but promised me she was getting my name and address removed from the records. She asked me which name I now use, and I told her. Well, you can probably guess what happened next. I began receiving their junk mail with my correct name on it!! I was LIVID!! This was the point at which I filed complaints with the medical licensing board against both doctors. It was not the sort of thing the board deals with, however, they did have to notify the doctors that complaints had been filed against them. The board told me that the doctors were seeing to getting my information removed from the marketing lists. I HOPE it is all over. I have not received anything from them in a couple of months. Whether or not they truly deleted my information or just put it on ice I probably shall never know, and how they paired my name with my current address shall always be a mystery, too, and I am very angry about all of it. Why should one company who runs some sort of office for taking x-rays or blood tests or something or other keep someone's name for over twenty years after seeing the person only ONE time??? Moreover, why would they keep tabs on where the person is living after all those years???
Computers have our information stored all over the place, and we do not even know the extent that it is done without our consent. I heard a story not long ago, too, about photocopy machines. Apparently, once you use a photocopy machine to make copies of documents, e.g. tax records, medical records, court records, etc., the photocopy machines have memory in them that store all of those documents. This made the news not long ago after some criminals purchased old photocopy machines and took people's personal information from the machines's memory and used it for fraud. Now THAT is really scary!! How many of us, myself included, have gone to photocopy shops and copied sensitive documents or asked to use a photocopy machine at someone's office to make a few copies? I know I have done it many times over the years!
I am a pretty private person, but this sort of thing would bother me even if I were not so protective of personal information. Imagine the hopelessly tangled, protracted litigation involved trying to figure out exactly who had your information, how they stored it, and how they let criminals and others obtain it? How would liability attach for this sort of negligence? It would be a legal nightmare! Oh, and I will offer a little side story that fits into this narrative as well.
About 2-3 years ago, I went to a doctor's office and was asked to get a blood test done to check all levels, etc. I went to the office the same day and had the test done, but I decided I was not going to see that doctor again. I thought he was in private practise, but once I went for the appointment, I discovered he worked in an office with several other doctors, and the "practise" was owned by a hospital. Anyway, after the test result came back, I asked the doctor to send me a copy for my records. I live in a pretty large complex of big cities, but this doctor was in my city. Two weeks later, the copy still had not arrived. I belled them, and they said to wait another week or so because the copy had to go to their larger office in a larger city more than an hour's drive from my city. Why?!?! Why not just send it directly to me?? Answer: that is the way we have to do it. The larger office in the other city will receive the copy and then post it to you. Chagrined, I waited another two weeks, but it still did not arrive, so I belled them AGAIN. The woman said, let me check everything and asked me to verify my address, which I did. She said, that is the problem! You forgot to update your address with us. In shock and anger, I replied, I only saw you ONCE; I have not moved; and, I filled out my address by hand in ink on your form. I know my own address. Well, it transpired that whoever transferred my information from the form into their computer typed in the wrong address, and the copy of my medical record had been sent to another house down the road from my home!! I was so angry I could have chewed nails by this point. Whoever received the letter did not send it back. I have no idea if they just tossed it or opened it and read it or what. Even if they tossed it unopened, it meant my private, privileged medical records were in the trash where anyone might find it and use it for something.
Well, I told a friend about this catastrophe. He is a lawyer and told me that what they did was a HIPPA violation. He said they would be fined at least $1K for this blunder if I reported it. Eventually, I took the time to fill out the mountain of paperwork to report the doctor's office for negligence. I thought it would teach them a lesson about how they handle patients's sensitive medical records. I was wrong. The HIPPA people found "no violation." Why? Because the medical records were never sent back by whomever received them!! They would have had to be returned "not at this address" and put in my file. Another rule is doctors and their staff may NOT remove anything from a patient's file. If the envelope was returned, it was supposed to have been placed in the file and never removed. Now, I ask you, even if the doctor's office received it back, do you really think they would have admitted it to the HIPPA office, paid at least a $1K fine, and had a strike on record against them? I have worked in a lot of offices where very sensitive, privileged files were kept, and I can tell you, most places would have shredded the letter to protect themselves in case of an audit or a lawsuit.
I guess the upshot here is I am loathe to share my information with anyone for any reason these days, least of all marketers!! We do not have control over our own private, privileged information anymore, and it is getting worse all of the time. I saw a news programme not long ago which discussed how China(?) has cameras set up all over their cities. The cameras are using face recognition technology to identify people just walking on the streets. Why?? You know there is a sinister motive behind something like that. Frankly, as I told a friend not too long ago, I know I have well under twenty years left on my docket, and I am glad of it. I do not recognise this world anymore, and I am not especially happy about living in it with these sorts of things going on. We cannot trust our government, and we cannot even trust the businesses we do business with not to hand over our personal information just because it is asked for, e.g. ATT handing over everyone's emails to the government in order to find "terrorists." I have news for you kids, the terrorists are the businesses and the government.
My information is probably stored in so many computers in so many places that to know the actual facts would cause me a drop dead heart attack, but nevertheless, I will not let Walmart take and store any more of my information than they may already possess.
