Since moving in the past few weeks, I’ve discovered that utility companies, schools, medical clinics, and various government agencies all have my name tucked away somewhere on their computer network. It’s as if they asked me “Favorite color?” and came up with my life history in moments. Thank goodness my visits to the grocery store aren’t linked into the database. That would be embarrassing if they could see how much junk food I buy.
We expect our name and address to be available to those aforementioned agencies, but here’s some food for thought. Is your mental health status a data point on a government screen somewhere? It is if you’re from up north, and it’s affecting their lives in unexpected ways.
