Trust But Verify

Today we find more emphasis on security, particularly on-line, be it through the world wide web or our telephone.

Often an unfamiliar voice asks us to "verify" our address.  What they mean is they would like us to help THEM verify who we are by telling them our address.  But that is not what they say.  There has developed a short-hand that conveys the point in an abbreviated and convoluted way.  We are asked to "verify our address".

What leaps to my mind is that the person will read me my address and I will confirm that they have it right.  But, that is not what they want.  They want me to read to them my address, so they can verify that it matches the one they have on file.

I guess that in some way the approach of the clerks at the other end makes sense, once one considers what the person on the other end of the line needs.  And, they are doing it to protect us, the customers, from identity theft.  But, it is a colloquialism that I find irritating.

I am hoping that by writing this blog post I can get over my own irritation and thus speed up commerce in these United States by some small part of a minute and also reduce the stress and strain of my interactions with those at the various companies with which I do business via the phone.

Regards  —  Cliff