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Houston passes ordinance to fingerprint, photograph precious metal sellers
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<p>[QUOTE="Prime Mover, post: 1634291, member: 38783"]By that thought process you are indeed infringing on people's liberties as you are no longer allowing the presumption of innocence until proven guilty. You are saying that because someone wishes to not be fingerprinted when selling PM's they are automatically guilty of those crimes you mention. You have already decided that someone who may wish to simply remain private is trying to be nefarious. You are forcing someone to expose themselves to possible exploit from those who may indeed be criminals by providing very unique identifiable information when not absolutely warranted, for a discretionary transaction.</p><p><br /></p><p>I'm quite surprised that especially in this day and age of technology there are so many who still do not understand that it's not about hiding something of ill repute, but instead protecting yourselves and your loved ones from the people and crimes these laws are supposed to prevent.</p><p><br /></p><p>If you have nothing to hide, then go ahead and post all your important information out in the open everywhere. Post your name and full address on Internet forums, post your social security number on the corkboard at the supermarket, leave all your checking account numbers out on the table down at the community center. After all, there's no real difference between that and allowing yourself to be videotaped in public and putting down in writing all your personal information to a "safe and trusted" entity.</p><p><br /></p><p>For if you believe that giving out all your personal information to anyone, especially that so unique as your fingerprints to a coin shop or pawn shop, is keeping you protected, you are sadly and severely mistaken.</p><p><br /></p><p>So, a little scenario for you:</p><p>You are Joe Public driving up to the coin shop in your Lexus, and you've been videotaped on a public, or private for the coin store, video camera. You walk into the store and sell a bunch of coins and bullion, say $5k worth. You give your ID to be photocopied and you fill out a form and get fingerprinted. You take your money, walk out of the store and drive home. </p><p><br /></p><p>Seems innocuous, right? Well, let's see...</p><p><br /></p><p>There is now a video of you, with great detail of your features and looks. Your car, make and model as well as license plate are also on the video, very easily recognizable and the plate is well seen. In the store the clerk has taken a photocopy of your driver's license, as well as have the form with your home address and your fingerprint on there, certifying you are indeed you, and your car, your house and everything in it are indeed what and where they say they are, and they're yours.</p><p><br /></p><p>The store employs a third party person - either a security guard at night, a cleaning crew, a delivery person, an apprentice with a cloudy background but nothing that would be on a criminal record and are able to pass a background check. This person needs a little extra cash, so they take an extra copy of some paperwork in the back as they're putting it into the safe, or the paper is left out accidentally when someone's cleaning up, etc. This paper/video gets sold to someone who is indeed a criminal, using an all-cash, non traceable transaction.</p><p><br /></p><p>Then, a few weeks/months later you start getting phone calls about overdue accounts, collection letters, etc on accounts you never opened. But, someone did in your name because they had all your identifiable information that you so willingly gave up at the coin store when you sold some stuff a while back.</p><p><br /></p><p>Or, worse, someone is able to track you and your whereabouts because they now know where you live, what car you drive and can find out the information about where you work, they break into your house and steal your things. Since you were seen driving a Lexus (and they can prove it's yours based upon all the information they have, they ran a credit check and see the lease outstanding on it), and selling $5k worth of coins, you most likely have money or items worth stealing. How many times do we see coin thefts posted here, and it's said "oh, it was an inside job". Well, this is an inside job.</p><p><br /></p><p>And the fun part is you are left holding the bag for cleaning up your credit score, or cleaning up after a burglary, or having to buy a new car since it was stolen.</p><p><br /></p><p>Far fetched? Maybe a little since it does read like a script from "24", but not as much as you think in today's world. Everything is interconnected. Not everyone may have access to all the information about you immediately all at once, but there are plenty of sophisticated criminals out there looking for these types of things. I manage IT, in a healthcare company. I can tell you firsthand that with all the regulations about safeguarding information, it doesn't mean squat. Especially with contracts going out to the lowest bidder, moreso on government systems, your data is leaving the US and going God-Knows-Where at any given time and you have no control over it once it is given to anyone.</p><p><br /></p><p>And this all happened because you had nothing to hide in the first place. Except everything that's valuable to you.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>
[QUOTE="Prime Mover, post: 1634291, member: 38783"]By that thought process you are indeed infringing on people's liberties as you are no longer allowing the presumption of innocence until proven guilty. You are saying that because someone wishes to not be fingerprinted when selling PM's they are automatically guilty of those crimes you mention. You have already decided that someone who may wish to simply remain private is trying to be nefarious. You are forcing someone to expose themselves to possible exploit from those who may indeed be criminals by providing very unique identifiable information when not absolutely warranted, for a discretionary transaction. I'm quite surprised that especially in this day and age of technology there are so many who still do not understand that it's not about hiding something of ill repute, but instead protecting yourselves and your loved ones from the people and crimes these laws are supposed to prevent. If you have nothing to hide, then go ahead and post all your important information out in the open everywhere. Post your name and full address on Internet forums, post your social security number on the corkboard at the supermarket, leave all your checking account numbers out on the table down at the community center. After all, there's no real difference between that and allowing yourself to be videotaped in public and putting down in writing all your personal information to a "safe and trusted" entity. For if you believe that giving out all your personal information to anyone, especially that so unique as your fingerprints to a coin shop or pawn shop, is keeping you protected, you are sadly and severely mistaken. So, a little scenario for you: You are Joe Public driving up to the coin shop in your Lexus, and you've been videotaped on a public, or private for the coin store, video camera. You walk into the store and sell a bunch of coins and bullion, say $5k worth. You give your ID to be photocopied and you fill out a form and get fingerprinted. You take your money, walk out of the store and drive home. Seems innocuous, right? Well, let's see... There is now a video of you, with great detail of your features and looks. Your car, make and model as well as license plate are also on the video, very easily recognizable and the plate is well seen. In the store the clerk has taken a photocopy of your driver's license, as well as have the form with your home address and your fingerprint on there, certifying you are indeed you, and your car, your house and everything in it are indeed what and where they say they are, and they're yours. The store employs a third party person - either a security guard at night, a cleaning crew, a delivery person, an apprentice with a cloudy background but nothing that would be on a criminal record and are able to pass a background check. This person needs a little extra cash, so they take an extra copy of some paperwork in the back as they're putting it into the safe, or the paper is left out accidentally when someone's cleaning up, etc. This paper/video gets sold to someone who is indeed a criminal, using an all-cash, non traceable transaction. Then, a few weeks/months later you start getting phone calls about overdue accounts, collection letters, etc on accounts you never opened. But, someone did in your name because they had all your identifiable information that you so willingly gave up at the coin store when you sold some stuff a while back. Or, worse, someone is able to track you and your whereabouts because they now know where you live, what car you drive and can find out the information about where you work, they break into your house and steal your things. Since you were seen driving a Lexus (and they can prove it's yours based upon all the information they have, they ran a credit check and see the lease outstanding on it), and selling $5k worth of coins, you most likely have money or items worth stealing. How many times do we see coin thefts posted here, and it's said "oh, it was an inside job". Well, this is an inside job. And the fun part is you are left holding the bag for cleaning up your credit score, or cleaning up after a burglary, or having to buy a new car since it was stolen. Far fetched? Maybe a little since it does read like a script from "24", but not as much as you think in today's world. Everything is interconnected. Not everyone may have access to all the information about you immediately all at once, but there are plenty of sophisticated criminals out there looking for these types of things. I manage IT, in a healthcare company. I can tell you firsthand that with all the regulations about safeguarding information, it doesn't mean squat. Especially with contracts going out to the lowest bidder, moreso on government systems, your data is leaving the US and going God-Knows-Where at any given time and you have no control over it once it is given to anyone. And this all happened because you had nothing to hide in the first place. Except everything that's valuable to you.[/QUOTE]
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Houston passes ordinance to fingerprint, photograph precious metal sellers
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