Everyone is looking at me.
I’m posting this because it’s much too long to read at work, and I want to check it out later. But it looks excellent.
Why not, indeed? The world does not indulge those who refuse to flash identification when asked. Earlier that week, I was purchasing my first cell phone. Bursting with bile over such intrusive requests because I’d been researching the Gilmore case, I frostily walked out of one Cingular store after the clerk demanded my Social Security number and couldn’t even tell me why. She just blandly, coldly repeated: “It’s a necessary part of the form.”
At Rainbow, I always tell them “I forgot my card.” At TJ Maxx, refuse your phone number. At Best Buy, make up a Zip Code. Trust me, when you begin to realize the scope of the data that everyone is collecting, it’s scary.