Privacy?

posted on November 9th, 2008

envelope Last week I applied for my Matriculation certificate exams and yesterday I received an invoice which includes all my personal details and the exams I am going to sit for, plus a hefty bill to pay. As you may already know from your experiences of receiving bills, usually the company or department, or whatever it is, prints the name and address on the invoice and uses an envelope that has a small transparent 'window' to show the name and address of the recipient instead of re printing it externally on the envelope.

So far, so good.

The problem arises when more information is visible from this transparent 'window'. This was the case with my invoice yesterday. Not only you get to see my name and address, my ID card number and my mobile phone number are plainly visible from outside the envelope too!

I mean, is it me or what? I don't think you need to be a wizard to have some sense and not do something like this. Especially when there's potentially thousands of students like me who will be receiving such invoices.

EricaErica says: November 9th, 2008 at 19:16
My thoughts exactly... *shrugs* What can you do? -_-
ninuhadidaninuhadida's reply to Erica: November 9th, 2008 at 21:43
Just feel content that if it was you in charge you wouldn't do such a stupid thing :)
wenwen says: November 10th, 2008 at 9:50
...Have you ever been to the place where they issue birth certificates? (I can't remember the name) There is a board where they publish the names of the persons who are going to get married soon. You can see their names, their nationalities, their ADDRESSES!, I think that even the name of their parents and the name of the place where they are going to get married...Isn't this shocking??? This is very important information that could be used in a bad way! No matter what they are trying to achieve with this. Perhaps it was useful many years ago (though I can't really see the logic behind it in all honesty) but times change. All that informatio is private and could be used in a wrong way!!
RiaRia's reply to wen: November 10th, 2008 at 12:39
Hi Wen,

the ones you are referring to are called "wedding banns". In the past these used to be read in the church during the mass, for a number of consecutive weeks, so that if anyone knows a reason why the couple shouldn't get married, they would say so while the banns are still up(like when you watch American movies, the would say that if anyone knows a reason why the couple cannot get married they should say so now, or keep the secret forever). They used to be placed on a notice board in the spouses's respective parish churches too until a few years ago. If I'm not mistaken, they aren't put on display in the churches any longer.

These are done in case anyone knows of any particular disease, family ties, or if one of the spouses is already married, to avoid problems in the future. So all the details are required to be put on display to avoid confusion, problems, etc.

I agree with you that this it is quite stupid to put a person's personal details on the display; however I have a feeling that when you apply for a marriage license, you have a clause somewhere which states that your personal info will be on display for a certain amount of time.

sorry for the extra long comment!! :)
ninuhadidaninuhadida's reply to wen: November 11th, 2008 at 20:54
As wen mentioned, I wouldn't like to have my personal details on display like that.. but as Ria said, it does have a purpose (although I didn't know this before).. I think if something pops up (eg. you get to know something your partner didn't want you to know), it's definitely worth it!

It's though to decide, I really do not like having such personal data on display but when you come to think of it, I don't owe nobody nothing, I don't have any enemies (or so I think), so who wants to do any harm from my personal info?

However, I would be pissed if the government or whoever it is puts up my personal details (which I trusted him with in the first place!) without my consent!
wenwen says: November 15th, 2008 at 21:47
Hi Ria! Thanks for your input. It is interesting to see the reason behind this thing of the wedding bans...That was explained during the wedding preparation and all...I don't agree with it though...the reason doesn't seem good enough for all those personal details to be on display just like that...address...names of parents...nationality...the place where the marriage will take place so that someone can be sure that the groom and the bride will be there on a specific date...I just think that the reason is not good enough...In case someone notices the ban they can actually say something to avoid a wedding taking place...I don't know...I am not saying that's not the way it is...I am just saying it doesn't seem right to me.