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Douglas Adams’ character “Wonko The Sane” from the Hitchhiker’s guide to the galaxy does not seem so far-fetched after all.
In the book, Wonko builds the Asylum: an inside-out house where the brick is on the ‘inside’ and the wallpaper on the ‘outside’. He explains that the world has finally gone totally mad, so he has built the Asylum to put it in until it got better.
I have just attempted to buy a new mobile phone from the Orange shop. I was told that I needed to bring two forms of identification, for example a bill and a credit card. Thinking that it would make life easier, I picked up my Orange mobile phone bill from my existing phone. it has my account number, my phone number and my address on it.
Apparently, they don’t accept their own phone bill as proof of identity.
Apparenlty this is because I could print one off myself.
Apparently I could bring in any other bill, even though I can print that off for myself as well.
This is preposterous, as they would not be able to do any background check based on that bill because of the Data Protection Act. However, given my Orange bill, they have all my information, and I would be happy to answer any questions based on that account to them in order to prove who I am.
They did ask if I had my driving licence on me.
Of course I don’t! It’s not a legal requirement to carry your driving licence, and I don’t carry it because I don’t want to lose it.
Looking through my wallet, I was seeing how many ways I could prove my identity. I currently have:
- Debit Card
- Tesco Clubcard
- Sainsbury’s Nectar Card
- WHSmith Clubcard
- Boots Advantage Card
- Blood Donor Card
- Library Card
- RAC Membership Card
- Gym Membership Card
- Blockbuster Video Card
- Game Reward Card
- National Insurance Numbercard
Despite an alarming number of ‘loyalty’ cards, there is precious little that prove my identity - they all have my name on them, and to each individual company, I could prove who I was to them by answering a few questions.
I’m dead against the introduction of identity cards, but I wonder how much the government is paying Orange to make it increasingly awkward to prove your identity so that when they force Identity cards upon us it will seem like the solution to the problem.
However, it is still daft that a company like Orange will happily accept a bill from another company, but not one of their own as proof of my address.
