Frankly, I don't really mind showing a photo ID to small, local businesses, but few ask. Mostly they want to examine a credit card and key in the last four digits on it. Small businesses can have a difficult time with fraudulent purchases, so I sympathize. Years ago I was in their shoes.
Jon, I can't remember where I last got asked for my ID, or which card I used in that purchase. But to Rob's point, it was definitely in a small, local store.
That's a good thing to know about showing ID, Jon. I still get asked often. Usually it's from a small shop. Not at the grocery stores of major retailers. Next time I'll balk.
Ann, if you have a Staples or Macy's credit card you might have to show a photo ID. But Mastercard and VISA have agreements with merchants that govern requests for a photo ID.
The latest info I have for VISA: "Although Visa rules do not preclude merchants from asking for cardholder ID, merchants cannot make an ID a condition of acceptance. Therefore, merchants cannot refuse to complete a purchase transaction because a cardholder refuses to provide ID. Visa believes merchants should not ask for ID as part of their regular card acceptance procedures. Laws in several states also make it illegal for merchants to write a cardholder's personal information, such as an address or phone number, on a sales receipt."
I believe Mastercard specifically prohibits merchants from asking for a photo ID.
I agree, Chuck. I"m so used to doing that it's second nature. OTOH, if you are making a credit card purchase the store may require it because your credit card company requires it.
"The process of gathering information about you and then using it for a purpose unknown to you raises ethical issues for the people who create such systems. Thus, programmers and software designers must revisit the ethics of their profession and consider them carefully" . I think this summarises it well
Good advice on notifying the credit card company when you travel, Jon. A few years ago I received a call from a Discover rep who asked whether I had been in Mexico over the past three days. I said, "No." The rep told me my card had been maxed out in electronics stores in Mexico. Discover removed the charges and sent me a card with a new number.
Jim, the GOOD NEWS is one of the things that we can give away, knowing that we still have ours. Other information is really not other peoples business, although they certainly do try to pry. I can pay cash at most grocery stores and not present any card and not much information is available then. When they ask for a phone number, rattling off the one for the local hospital is always good. But as the recent "world News" scandal shows us, a few organizations do not posess any moral standards at any level. And we all areb aware that some will do anything for money.
The only way that a law could prevent snooping would be to remove all potential profit from it, which would require fines many orders of magnitude greater than those at present. Unfortunately our government is unable to have the courage to pass such laws. So we are sort of "out of luck" for the present.
You are right to speak boldly, but also right to be cautious.While sharing the Good News is the greatcommission, [ ,,,to the ends of the Earth,,,] its necessary to do so with wisdom and gentle words.Blogs are not the best venue for such, and can get explosive and quickly misunderstood, so it's a tricky task. However, a debate on ethics certainly invited it,,,,so, Kudos to you.
A new battery design, which replaces lithium with abundant and low-cost elemental sulfur, is still in its nascent stages but shows real promise for giving batteries more energy potential.
PTC will offer a virtual desktop environment for its Creo product design applications, potentially freeing engineers to run them from remote desktops on a variety of operating systems and mobile devices.
The push to achieving more intelligent, integrated manufacturing is putting a strong focus on networking and connectivity as key enabling technologies.
Now that solar and wind harvesting technologies are a thriving market, researchers are seeking other environmentally related energy sources for which they can create harvesting devices.
From Dell / Intel® New Paradigms in Design Work Scott Hamilton, vertical market strategist for Dell Precision workstations, 5/2/2013 5
Early in my career, I worked as a draftsman and remember the days of drawing on vellum with numbered pencils and Mylar with plastic lead. This was a fun experience in the sense that I ...
I've been using workstations for more than 10 years and love finding ways to get more performance from my system. With demanding professional applications that require more power each ...
A lasting memory from my first job as an engineer in an auto assembly plant is standing on hard concrete at six in the morning, vending-machine coffee clutched in hand, listening to ...
For industrial control applications, or even a simple assembly line, that machine can go almost 24/7 without a break. But what happens when the task is a little more complex? That’s where the “smart” machine would come in. The smart machine is one that has some simple (or complex in some cases) processing capability to be able to adapt to changing conditions. Such machines are suited for a host of applications, including automotive, aerospace, defense, medical, computers and electronics, telecommunications, consumer goods, and so on. This radio show will show what’s possible with smart machines, and what tradeoffs need to be made to implement such a solution.
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