Besides auto-attendants that greet you in Spanish before English, my second most hated thing in life is passwords.
Need to log on to your computer? Enter a password.
Have to check voice mail? Enter a password.
Want to play a game on your iPhone? Enter a password.
There’s passwords for just about everything and after a while it gets exhausting trying to remember them all. Your bank wants a minimum six character password that has one capital letter, 3 numbers and an obscure character followed by an exclamation point. To pay your phone bill, you need a four digit password that can’t start or end with a zero.
Why can’t there be uniformity in life?
I used to use 1234 for my password for everything, but life was simpler then. To block the scallywags from stealing our information we’re forced into creating so many different passwords, PINs, challenge questions, pass-phrases then have to submit a DNA sample if we forget one of them.
Today I tried to pay a credit card bill online, and after three attempts at the password, I locked my account. Instead of having to ask a simple question online to verify my identity, I had to dial a toll-free number for “website support.” Through the magic of VOIP, I was transported to Bali, India and spoke with “Jennifer” who asked me a series of questions;
“What is your mother’s maiden name?”
“What is the name of your first pet?”
“You have a mortgage with a monthly payment of $X, what bank is that with?”
“What was the name of your first employer?”
About the only thing “Jennifer” didn’t ask was “Boxers or briefs?” But I’m sure somewhere in some database there’s the answer.
Joe Boxer. Briefs. XL Will only wear blue or burgundy. Must be tagless.
To read the rest of this post, click here then enter the password you created on June 5, 2004 at 10:57am from IP Address 192.168.0.223 and enter a series of questions to confirm your identity.