Question for the week: Where do you draw the line for personal privacy versus ensuring security of the overall society?
I went to Indy this past weekend to watch powersoccer and stayed at a nice hotel. I was asked to provide a photo ID on checking in. Hotels never used to do this, and I hesitated, but decided not to make a scene. I did a little surfing, and found that there are a number of people concerned about it, and ther are even some lawsuites in process.
So, why should a hotel have the right to not just see your drivers license, but in many cases, make a photo copy?
What do you think?
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When you check in to a hotel in Europe you are expected to surrender your passport. No exceptions. If you don't have a passport (which pretty much never happens), they won't rent you a room. Identity papers in the old Communist block was even a bigger deal. Your papers were more important than any other thing you owned because you were literally committing a crime if you did not have them with you all the time.
ReplyDeleteThey are absolutely paranoid about their papers in Eastern Europe and they expect YOU to be as well.
A part of the feeling of intrusion is not just the intensity, but the frequency of intrusions. For example, if you have to prove your identity every day (working for a defense contractor, for example) you learn to live with it. Conversely, if you're working an assembly line in Kokomo, odds are your privacy isn't impinged upon as often or as intensely.
Want to dial down the sense of intrusion in your life? Throw away your cell phone and don't get a home phone.
True,Casey. Also, EVERYONE,every place asks for your e-mail address. I don't give it. Yahoo misses enough spam as it is. I guess my problem with it is if they actually make a copy of it. Do they?? What for? I understand when they do it at the hospital. They're gonna make sure they get their(possible)thousands of dollars.But $99 bucks when they already made sure it cleared your credit card upfront?! Really??
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