I think it’s just a fancy way of saying “set a cookie.”

I dunno. I thought we were operating under the cookie system before. I put in my information and they set the cookie so that I wouldn’t have to repeat the process each time. But then that changed somehow. So what’s different about this procedure?

My bank is doing the same thing.  I read through all that gibberish and took away from it exactly what Kim did; that it’s a cookie.

If I’d had the bank report me for “excessive” withdrawals I’d probably share your concern, though.

I guess the fact is that our lives are open books to those who want to know and there’s nothing (so far) that we can do about it. So, in the interest of saving keystrokes, I can set a cookie. Same as before, but now with lots of fancy language. I still don’t think I will.

The place where I do my VOLUNTEER work two Saturdays a month is asking for a lot of personal and financial information now too. I’m going to ignore the request, and if they push too hard about it, I’m going to tell them I can no longer be a volunteer there. I could sure use two more Saturdays each month.

That sounds kinda weird, Pablo. Maybe personal information is one thing if you were working with kids or something (but they logically would have required the information before starting), but why do they need to know financial information for volunteer work? Institutions are getting entirely too nosy. Well, volunteering additional stewardship time at Roundrock certainly wouldn’t require a bunch of nosy questions, would it?

I am totally disgusted with the new log-on screens.  I managed to lock myself out within a day and needed to call the bank to start over.  And the fact that I don’t have a computer at home and use public ones makes it too easy for me to accidently make whatever computer I’m visiting my “registered” one.  (Which I have done already by mistake.)

At least your bank asked!  Mine (BofA) started this idiotic picture recognition process where we have to select a picture (from their choices) and if we don’t recognize the picture then we’re not supposed to log on or somesuch nonsense.  When I switched over to my new MacBook and logged on, the site said they didn’t recognize my computer and started asking me challenge questions before I could see my selected picture (which I named “Stupid#@!picture).  So, they’re setting cookies somewhere. 

I realize they’re trying to make users feel more secure, but it doesn’t do it for me.  They now know the street I grew up on, my first dog’s name, my mother’s maiden name and probably several other things that sort of creep me out.  Such is cyberlife these days, I guess. 

And, BofA isn’t the only one with the stupid#@!picture thing - Vanguard is doing it now as well.

I was going to suggest we must have the same bank, until I read the comments, that is.  Sheesh.
I was unaware of the “three withdrawals per month” nonsense.  Is that part of the Patriot Act?  My libertarian streak is starting heat up.

Banks must be using the same security program. I had to pick a dumb picture, too. And then write a caption for it. I’ll have to try erasing all my cookies and see what happens. If they’re already using cookies, then what’s the deal with registering computers?

I can’t remember if this was part of the Patriot Act or something subsequent to it. Whatever it is, the law is fairly recent. I can’t quite understand why making withdrawals from a savings account is any more suspicious than making withdrawals from checking accounts, but somebody thinks so. It’s a grand inconvenience for people who like to salt cash away until the car insurance is due or the taxes are due or the semi-annual water bill is due or repairs on the house or a new refrigerator is needed. It’s not as if I’d choose to use their puny interest bearing savings account for my life savings. And I leave an amazingly easy trail of financial transactions to follow that are totally mundane to even the most suspicious mind.

That’s the thing that gripes me. We’re all suspicious characters now. Just because we’re breathing.