Canadian Personal Finance Blog

I keep finding things on Bruce Schneier’s security web site that make me want to scream, but not necessarily just because of the Security Concerns.

The post in specific (click here to read the whole thing) says:

After a few hours of losses, he goes to the cashier and asks for a cash advance off of his credit card. The card tells the casino his name, but not much else. As is required by card issuers, the cashier asks for some other identification, such as a driver’s license. That license offers the casino a ton of CRM identification goodies, but the cashier is only supposed to glance at the picture and the name to verify identity and hand the license–and its info treasure trove–back to the gambler.

Not any more, at least if a Minneapolis company called Cash Systems Inc. has anything to say about it. The firm was recently awarded a U.S. patent for a device that can grab all of the data of almost any U.S. driver’s license in seconds and instantly dump it into a casino’s CRM system.

OK, so who in the name of Methusela is making cash withdrawals from their Credit Card at a CASINO? If you are doing this, YOU HAVE A PROBLEM, and it is not just your DEBT REDUCTION plan is in the crapper. I beg of you see Gamblers Anonymous, or something like that, because your life is not your own any more.

OK, I’ll get off my soapbox now. Be afraid of these kind of companies that want to get all the information they can about you. The more they know about you, the less privacy we all have.

–C8j