Re: your mail

[mgraffam@idsi.net]

On Mon, 1 Mar 1999, Anonymous wrote:

> Does anyone have any information regarding the legality of those
>annoying signature pads used by CompUSA, Sears and a million other retail
>stores?  It seems to me that recording signatures and compiling a
>database of them is a major civil liberties violation.  Comments?

Nah. .. this sort of thing is reasonable. They only use those pad things
when using credit cards and checks (to my knowledge). Signatures in this
case are a reasonable thing. I wouldn't want someone to be able to plunk
down a piece of plastic with _my_ name and credit card number on it and
charge thing to my account without putting a signature down.. ties it
to the human doing the transaction. 

It may not be useful in finding the person who actually commited the
fraud, but it is pretty easy to verify that it wasn't _me_ .. this sort of
verification is required by the system if it is to work well. 

Now, if they require it for cash.. that is is different story. 

So, that is the trick. If you dont want 'em to have your signature,
withdraw cash and pay with that. 

I only use cash, myself. No credit cards, and no checking account. 
I have that freedom since I only shop when I need something; I don't
idly walk around the mall buying useless junk :)

Michael J. Graffam (mgraffam@idsi.net)
"If you die, you win.."
	John Landry, statistics professor discussing life insurance 
	and probability