Mary Fisher wrote:

I think you misunderstand.We shred paper for the sake of the garden, not to
protect it. We shred everything we can.

We don't shred bank statements though because we want a permanent record of
our activities - it's a matter of habit. They're kept in one of the four
filing cabinets we have with the rest of the record of our lives.

I was suggesting that the shredding and mulching was a good way of
ditching unwanted paper with sensitive information on it, I was not sure
if you were doing that from a standpoint of just wanting shredded
mulched paper, or whether the security advantage was also part of your
motivation.

but I accept what you say about losing stuff in filing cabinets,
BTDTGTTS ;-)

(same goes for wiping / destroying old hard drives prior to disposal)


We haven't disposed of any.

What have you done with them then? (or have you not been playing with
computers long enough to have outgrown your first 20MB drive?)

Which reminds me - what adhesive will stick CDs to an outside wall painted
with masonry paint? There, that's d-i-y.

How permanent do you want it? Impact adhesive will do it pretty
securely, as would epoxy. Mirror tape may be better if you want
something less permanent and the wall is not too rough. Also don't
underestimate blue-tak for a temporary fixing.

Ah! I suspected that you wouldn't resist that bait :-)

I can resist anything except temptation ;-)

If you shred all paper evidence of your life and won't commit anything to

I don't, did I give that impression?

the pc (except your website, curiously) how can you check on past

The website has some sales stuff plus a fair amount of the information I
use to answer customer questions... I don't rate much of it as
particularly sensitive. Having said that a bit of detective work could
get you more information no doubt.

transactions, if you need to? If you have a business surely you have to have
evidence if only for your accountant?

Personally I keep a fair amount of information, but there comes a point
where a twelve year old bank statement has little value. So when the
filing cabinet will accept no more I get all ruthless on it and shred
the old stuff ;-)

I also keep plenty of computerised information - but it is simpler to
keep adding storage to deal with that one ;-)

For business and tax purposes then one obviously needs to keep
everything for at least six years anyway.

Stuff that still falls through the letter box (Mailing preference
service stops most of it) such as the partially completed credit card or
loan application forms some companies seem to love sending out, gets
dumped straight into the shredder though.

Very wise I might say... (no fan of debt myself). I like CC cards for the
security they bring to some classes of purchase however.


Not for much longer, I understand.

Why is that?

I am a little less trusting on the DD front since I like to have a little
input into the settling up phase to catch any mistakes sooner.


To date there have been no mistakes- and before you start talking about
toddlers running into roads I'll say that I'm no toddler and ask how long a
history do you need to have trust in a process? We've used it for decades.

To be fair I only recall handful of billing mistakes in the last ten
years or so. I do like the freedom to choose which account things are
paid out from though. So things like credit card bills get the minimum
monthly payment met by DD (in case I forget to pay on time - that way
there is no late payment fee), but then the balance I will pay manually.

Tis the thing about usenet, if its not a new thread then it must be a
reply to a post...


So you ARE being personal.

Sometimes, mostly not. As I said the post must be a reply to another
even if its is intended as a general comment.

Perhaps their data mining exercises have shown you have a good correlation
to customers who are likely to make use of some of their more profitable
services at some point in your life... will writing, releasing equity in
property for long term care arrangements etc (not saying you (as in the
actual "you" in this case) will, but such is the non precise nature of
data mining). Might just be good ole, customer service and loyalty. (one
holds out hope it still exists)


They do know that three of our progeny have begun accounts with them because
of our recommendation, that's the sort of thing banks like I imagine.

Yup very much so. Few people change from the bank they first select, so
they like to get em young ;-)

True, but not for transacting online payments ;-)


But data mining can tell someone who's interested an awful lot about you
just from Usenet ...

Very true - especially after ten years of posting to it. All those
little bits of information added together probably divulge a fair amount.

Then you and your highly able colleagues must make sure that the defences
you design and implement must be secure.

Nice idea, but alas it does not work like that.


Why not?

Are you saying that you're incapable of designing a secure system?

Yes! (blunt enough?)

The criminal implication has not been the only one people have cited.

If it weren't open (as some think) to criminal activity would you agree to
having an ID system?

Depends on what you mean by an ID system. If there was a way of buying
an ID card that had a reasonable level of trustworthiness, but was not
linked to a central register (or at least one of the scale proposed),
and it was available to those that wanted it, then I would say fine so
long as it is not going to cost 10's of billions of tax payers money. It
could then become an acceptable way of providing ID in some cases,
however it would remain only one of several ways, and would not be
"written in" to procedures. That ought to help control feature creep.

With the current proposals I object on several levels however, not just
the prospect for criminal misuse of the data.

No, I expect most have not given the issue any serious consideration and
are more interested in what happens next on Eastenders....


Yes. But so what?

Don't you think it is a great shame that in the past people have fought
and died to win the freedoms and the choices we have now, and yet a good
majority seem prepared to let some of them slip away simply due to apathy?


--
Cheers,

John.

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