I know that it is not Friday yet, but I need any anecdotes you might have that have to do with privacy. A colleague of mine is giving a talk on the subject and thought real life experiences might liven things up. Thanks.

All names and banks will be kept confidential unless permission is given!

I think this project might end up on the shelf of the world's thinnest books. Like, "Bill Clinton Tells The Truth."

You've just got to think outside the box. The recent post about asking a blind person for a driver's license can be related to privacy. Speakers can usually think of a way to tie in seemingly unrelated stories. If you will do this, it might end up on the shelf of the world's thickest books. Like, "Bill Clinton's Black Book."

This one is pre-GLBA, but it's still pretty funny.

I had a customer one time who came in the bank and accused us of giving out her social security number. We didn't share information with anyone, and assured her of that. We pointed out to her that the credit bureau had that information, and the IRS did, but no one else got it from us.

She kept insisting that we were giving it out. I finally convinced her to tell me why she thought that, and how it was affecting her. She said that she knew we were giving it out to single men because they were not asking her to marry them. We were therefore keeping her from having a marriage and a family, and she wanted us to be held responsible for that!

I guess the look on my face at that point was quite humorous. I still get teased about that one. Some people are not going to get it no matter how you tell them! I really wonder how she reacted when she got her first privacy notice (I'm with another bank now).

This is more typical than funny, but we had some customers upset at being sent "junk" mail and demanded that we stop because it was an invasion of their privacy. (The "junk" mail was the Privacy Notice!)

When I lived in California, the "unlisted number" service from the phone company was touted as a way to eliminate telemarking calls (provided you didn't give anyone else your phone number, but that's another issue). The kicker was, the phone company would call these same people attempting to sell additional phone products and services. It took a class action lawsuit to get the phone company to stop making telemarketing calls to those customers that purchased a service that was advertized as eliminating telemarketing calls.

I hope this helps.

That's just fine with me. Today is my "Friday" this week !

Another thread has some great privacy stories, here's the link, Privacy Ha!