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Fighting back against invasion of privacy


               
2025 Dec 13, 4:53pm   206 views  11 comments

by Patrick   follow (59)  

The recent law in Australia requiring digital ID to access the internet has made me more determined than ever to fight invasion of privacy.

Today I tried to add my wife to my checking account at Stanford Federal Credit Union (SFCU). We were ushered into a little office and an AWFL asked for our driver's licenses. OK. Started to get a little annoyed that my driver's license was literally scanned and swiped into their machines. That's a fucking digital ID right there.

Then, first question, to me and not to my wife: "What is the name of your employer?" I said I didn't want to give that info, because it's not relevant. The AFWL woman in the office insisted, so I said I'm retired. So she demanded the name of my last employer. I said I didn't want to give that info.

So she smiled gleefully, and "Oh, then I can't help you in adding your wife to your checking. Thank you."

I asked to talk to a manager. He said "It's just a form on the computer, and we cannot continue until you answer the question." I asked whether they had retired people do this. He said yes, but he can't put "retired" in the employer name slot.

The AWFL was practically orgasmic with glee at this point, because I was not able to bypass her demand for my last employer's name.

What makes it all the more ridiculous is that I had direct deposit with them during my time at Craigslist, so there was no new info to give her.

I looked it up. There's no federal or state requirement to ask that question. They're just being dicks.

Avoid SFCU.

Comments 1 - 11 of 11        Search these comments

1   Maga_Chaos_Monkey   2025 Dec 13, 5:31pm  

@patrick did you pull your money out? I absolutely have done that and when I threaten to do that i always get my way.

I've gone through with in when the BS fees we agreed wouldn't come back came back.

Wells. Cough Fargo Cough cough
2   Patrick   2025 Dec 13, 5:47pm  

Thanks @Maga_Chaos_Monkey

I complained online on their site, and I'll give the management a chance to apologize and let me redo it without answering that stupid question.

On Tuesday, without a real apology and offer to redo without that question, I'll close the account. It's been 20 years and they've never been this dickish before, but things change.

Pulling my money out is not enough. I want to tell all their customers about it. But how to contact them?
3   Patrick   2025 Dec 13, 5:56pm  

Grok:


Federal Law (USA PATRIOT Act / BSA CIP Rules): Credit unions must verify identity for account changes involving new parties (like adding a joint owner). This typically requires viewing government ID, but scanning/photographing is not federally mandated—only recording a description (type, number, issuer, expiration) suffices.
4   Patrick   2025 Dec 13, 5:57pm  

Maga_Chaos_Monkey says

Wells. Cough Fargo Cough cough


BTW, Wells really sucks, which is why my wife wanted to leave them anyway.

I worked there for a year as a contractor. It sucks to work at Wells even more than it sucks to be their customer.
6   Ceffer   2025 Dec 14, 12:41am  

I stay with Wells because it's a business account that started at First Interstate Bank, then went through a couple of bank merges until it wound up at Wells. They can't charge me anything if I keep a certain balance, and they just don't offer that any more but it appears they have to honor it anyway because it is part of the transfer agreements. It includes online banking and balances collect some pittance of interest by law. Every once in a while some AI sniffer looks through and may comment on it, but they have never made me change it.

They did cancel free checking. Checks are pretty expensive, but a lump lasts a good while these days.
7   Patrick   2025 Dec 23, 5:12pm  


On 22/December/2025 09:14, Kaushiv Prasad wrote:
> As for the occupation portion if you are retired we do need to add what position you retired from.

Why?

It's not legally required, and obviously not relevant to my wife's being added to my account.

Patrick

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Good Afternoon Patrick,

For our internal policies we need to validate the criteria on the membership application including current occupation or previous occupation-if retired.

Please let me know if you would still like to move forward with the Zoom Appointment.

Thank you,
Kaushiv Prasad
Member Care Team Specialist
Virtual Branch

Office: (650) 304-3849
Toll-Free: 888.723.7328
1860 Embarcadero Road
Palo Alto, CA 94303
sfcu.org

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: Patrick <p@patrick.net >
Sent: Tuesday, December 23, 2025 1:29 PM
To: Kaushiv Prasad
Subject: Re: (EXTERNAL) Re: SFCU Zoom Appointment - 12/19/2025 at 4:00Pm PST

Thanks Kaushiv,
but that explanation does not help. What is the justification for that internal policy?

If there is no justification, then it is simply harassment of customers and invasion of privacy.

This is all very frustrating, like talking to a robot.

Patrick
8   Karloff   2025 Dec 23, 6:22pm  

"Self-employed"

But I do agree with punishing idiocy, so transferring to another credit union is a good idea. Of course, they're all probably going the same direction these days, so you'll probably find some other intolerable policy there.
9   Karloff   2025 Dec 23, 6:28pm  

If you provide people an effective means of privacy, expect to be treated like this guy:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keonne_Rodriguez

In other words: do it anonymously.
10   PeopleUnited   2025 Dec 23, 8:13pm  

Patrick says

Kaushiv Prasad

That doesn’t sound good.
11   FortWayneHatesRealtors   2025 Dec 23, 8:54pm  

PeopleUnited says

Patrick says


Kaushiv Prasad

That doesn’t sound good.


Bitcoin IMO was made by CIA so they could track everything, and use it for some other nefarious means. Anyone who tries to make things harder for them, they go after.

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