I'm sitting here thinking about the erosion of privacy after reading an article about it. I was reminded about how I handled issues around that as opposed to others facing the same dilemma. It dawned on me that privacy matters to some people, but others are completely content to go along with the program.

The first incident was when I was in Navy Boot Camp at sunny Great Lakes, Illinois. It was February of course, and the sadists would keep the windows open all night to "acclimatize" us to the wonderful winter weather. One day we had to go to the medical center for I think tetanus shots or something, when something caught my eye...

I'm the type of guy that notices little things that most other people miss, hence the name: EverNoticeThat. On a wheeled cart were all of these little bottles with strange-sounding medical names on them. Since I real a lot, one bottle I recognized as being for what we were there for, but the other was a mystery. It was odd, because we were only there for a single inoculation, but he was giving people two shots.

The bottles were in pairs, so of course I picked the second one up because I wanted to know what in the hell he was shooting into our bodies. One bottle had a really long two-name title on it. As I wrote the names down, that's when all hell broke loose...

"You're not supposed to be looking at that!" E1 or not, I spat right back: "You're putting this into our bodies, we have a right to know what it is. I see the one for tetanus, but what is this other bottle for?" He snatched it out of my hand and slammed it on the cart, refusing to answer. In our paperwork, I saw a short section where we could opt-out, by saying we'd already had the shots at home. So I asked him again to explain the second bottle, he said it was none of my business, then I picked it up and began tossing some to other sailors who also began questioning him about its contents.

Seeing he was getting flustered while not answering us, I read aloud the section on opting out, and said: "You know what? I just remembered I already had these shots back home. I'm opting out." Red-faced, he made me sing the form, while about half of the other sailors did the same. They wanted privacy for their operation, but we were supposed to just "go along" with what they wanted. That was my first foray into questioning the system.

A DNA Test by Another Name...

We're all familiar with the original drug test consisting of urinating into a cup. But now I'm seeing new options for that old standard. I always choose a urinalysis, but more and more, I'm seeing people talked into either a cheek swab, or giving a saliva sample. Both of these are excellent for collecting a DNA sample. Not that I like the first option at all, but a cheek swab in particular is normally used for DNA collection due to the nature of the cells lining the inside of your mouth.

In short, a cheek swab is a DNA test.

DNA in a urine sample degrades quickly, and is not optimal for DNA testing, which is why they're pressuring people to open their mouths instead... This is why they don't want you to piss in a cup.

Do you really want to volunteer a sample that could be sent to the CODIS Federal DNA Database?

Whenever I apply for a job, I always ask what kind of testing they do and make it known I'm only available for a urinalysis. I turn down anything else. The HR lady will say: "A cheek swab is so much easier." Yeah/No, I don't think so honey. What amazes me is that so many people don't even think to ask about other options. This is where the lack of information rears its ugly head. If you don't know, you likely won't ask.

What I've found, is that the simple act of inquiring into other methods works a surprising amount of the time. I had been hired at a supermarket, and the lady was showing me the login process. We're standing in line in front of a little box that accepted fingerprints. One girl had a cold and coughed in her hands before pressing her finger on the glowing scanner. Another guy took his fingers and dug up his ass to separate his undies from his butt crack.

Just Ask

Once I saw what was going on and how unhygienic it all was, I was out. I told the HR drone that I was a privacy advocate and wasn't available to put my finger on their filthy scanner, as I didn't want my prints in their computer system. Was there another way to log in?

She looked puzzled, and said that no one had ever refused a print before, and said she'd make some calls. Eureka! She comes back and said I can use the card instead. Mission accomplished. The surprising part is that no one had EVER questioned the process before. Are people just lemmings willing to follow each other over a cliff? All I did was ask. And sometimes that's all it takes.

With legacy social media, we're losing our personal privacy day by day. Filling up their coffers with information once only shared between friends and family. The battle to preserve what little privacy is left continues.