33 online
 
Most Popular Choices
Share on Facebook 6 Printer Friendly Page More Sharing
Exclusive to OpEd News:
OpEdNews Op Eds   

We are Being Tracked by the Banks: What to Do

By       (Page 1 of 2 pages)   No comments
Message Kathryn Smith

Dear friends

I was depositing in one of the brand new ATM machines of Bank of America. A cold evening, I was wearing gloves.

HAHA! Guess what. The machine wouldn't work.

I tried and tried, pressed the buttons on the computer screen. No result.

Then I took my gloves off.

BINGO!! By golly, it worked.

 These darned Diebold machines that BofA is using are obviously sensitive to our fingerprints!

Caught red-handed, BofA. Oops....

After all, when I was a bank teller in my twenties, I was disciplined for peeking at someone's statistics (a former employer with whom I had a bitter ending) and of course they were quite right to discipline me. They were strict about confidentiality matters, and had to be.

Yet here goes that same Bank of America for which I worked about twenty years ago, which now is magnifying the images of the checks we deposit to such a huge size as to be visible to the most casual passer-by all the way across the street.

If some kook was standing behind us at the ATM machine at night, and saw what a large check we were depositing, who knows what would happen? And what about the maker of the check, whose address and name and phone number can as before be read from practically across the street? As receipts from the machines are lost and float away in the breezes, whose hands do they end up in, and who would show up at the check maker's doorstep in the end?

Bank of America, you have goofed. In public. You are confessing your intentions to:

A) Fingerprint us as we make deposits and withdrawals

B) Blow information out to the public and the winds, at contradiction to decades of banking experience and policy

C) Are you tracking and reporting our whereabouts to the US Government? Was it in fact because of the Patriot Act that you put in these brand new, fingerprinting machines? Who, then, paid for the installation of those ATMs? Who demanded that they be put in, fingerprint-sensitive and all?

D) Is it because of tracking our money that we no longer need envelopes to deposit? Are the photos of checks deposited in ATMS reported to the Feds at the press of a button, with our fingerprints on the deposit to boot?

Next Page  1  |  2

(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).

Rate It | View Ratings

Kathryn Smith Social Media Pages: Facebook page url on login Profile not filled in       Twitter page url on login Profile not filled in       Linkedin page url on login Profile not filled in       Instagram page url on login Profile not filled in

This quote summarizes the nature of my concerns and the content of personal experiences which stir my activism: "Necessity is the plea for every infringement on human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves". --Paul (more...)
 
Go To Commenting
The views expressed herein are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of this website or its editors.
Writers Guidelines

 
Contact EditorContact Editor
Support OpEdNews

OpEdNews depends upon can't survive without your help.

If you value this article and the work of OpEdNews, please either Donate or Purchase a premium membership.

STAY IN THE KNOW
If you've enjoyed this, sign up for our daily or weekly newsletter to get lots of great progressive content.
Daily Weekly     OpEd News Newsletter
Name
Email
   (Opens new browser window)
 

Most Popular Articles by this Author:     (View All Most Popular Articles by this Author)

Surviving an Economic Crash: Resources and Tips

Why Reducing, Reusing and Recycling Really *Does* Help the Environment

How Misguided Spirituality is Informing the Religious Right + Fascist Politics

Army sources say troops to be deployed to USA for election "terrorist" curbing

Leaked "reports" about secret Congressional meeting may be a hoax

FBI/police ordered to curtail protests: Explains Amy Goodman's arrest?

To View Comments or Join the Conversation:

Tell A Friend