Commerce on the internet is booming, 25 billion and growing. Every company offering their own membership card or some other kind of service to give you discounts, buy more, and get you in their database. Unfortunately to get “that card” or be a member they’ll perform a credit check, just as if you were purchasing a car or getting a loan. The internet is different this way since it is impersonal as you fill in blanks on a web page not interacting with a company representative face to face. Years ago when this type of commerce was in more of a learning stage companies were still trying to get a handle on what is sensitive information and what is not. We are reminded every once in a while big business can still overlook important details.
Today we know to look for the “lock” at the bottom of the screen, the https in the url line, these are signs that information is secure. One should always do that when purchasing anything on the internet. Even though coffee shops, hotels, book stores, and trendy bistro’s offer internet access I would be careful where there. Surfing is good but checking mail unencrypted, making purchases, signing up for promotions, anytime you’d be entering personal information … do it some place else, like at home or work. Believe it or not every character that is sent from the machine to the site when the url starts with http or the lock is unlocked can be read with the right software. A password here or a username there, it doesn’t take much for a person “with time on their hands” and an enterprizing mind to cause trouble.
So what’s the point you say ??? Today I thought it was a good time to switch wireless carriers so I could free my phone when the production model comes out. Currently I’m on a carrier that uses CDMA, the Neo will use GSM. So after checking coverage I went to that carriers web site and started the process. Picking a plan, then a phone .. just a “free” one cause in the end it’s the SIM card that I’ll need, and then transfering my number. This is where I stopped. Part of the sign up process required credit card and SSN information be entered. First time I’ve had to enter both but can certainly understand now days a credit check might be in order if your spending hundereds of dollars a month. My bill would never be that much but the site doesn’t know that so I can’t blame them. So after entering that info I get to the page that needs information about my existing carrier. As I fill in the blanks it’s asking for account info, password, and SSN. But the page is unencrypted !!!!, no lock, no https. I paused for a moment and thought a multi-billion dollar company asking for my most personal information and they don’t respect me enough to protect it when signing up. I don’t think so.
Although I’m excited about a truly open source phone I’m disapointed about what I’d have to do to get it. I’ll need to think about this since their’s only one GSM carrier that would be “worth” switching to … I may be waiting longer that I’d prefer to.
