An Open Letter to Bank of America

RE: Public complaint concerning ATM machine privacy violations

5-14-08

I was standing in line for the ATM machine at a Bank of America branch.

“They can’t keep using these machines” said a middle-aged man who was making a deposit. “It just plain takes too long to feed all these checks in, one by one. It used to be so much easier and faster, when you could deposit them into one envelope all together”.

“It’s a privacy violation” I interjected. “When you deposit the check, and the details are all blown up on the screen, the print is so big. Anyone can see who made the check out to you, their address at home, the dollar amount of the check, etc”.

“Yes” the guy agreed “the image on screen is so huge that they could see the check you are depositing, from across the street. They‘d have to be almost blind not to” he added.

I continued:

“If someone was standing behind you at the ATM machine, and saw a large check being deposited, they could….copy the name of the maker of the check, write down their address and phone number, and show up at their door. They could stalk me or you just for depositing it. These new ATM machines, by blowing up the image of the deposited checks so enormously large, are an invitation to identity theft and stalking. We never know who is going to stand in line behind us at the ATM machine”.

“You are right” said another man in his 60s who was present.

“Who came up with the idea of these new ATM’s anyway?” asked another customer in her 30s.

“The government?” I suggested, thinking of the Patriot Act.

I stated that casually blowing our private financial and residential information to the winds is a 4th amendment violation, and that there ought to be class action lawsuits. All three customers, who were present and using the ATM machines, agreed with me. Keep in mind that we were all strangers to each other. Wow! I sure was glad that I wasn’t the only person present who feels that way.

 1  |  2  |  3