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Rohit Singh
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Fri, 02 Feb 2007

Stupidity

Apparently, the Indian Consulate in San Francisco didn't shred the application papers of people who applied for visas and sent them out in the trash just like that. Of course, there's starting to be a brouhaha. There should be-- identity thieves could've had a field day with that info. Though, it isn't exactly shocking that babudom treats personal data in a cavalier fashion. The saddest thing is, of all the possible things the Consulate could've done to handle the PR shitstorm, they chose the worst option-- blaming it on the heightened sensitivity of westerners to identity theft:

"Consul General Prakash said there might be a cultural dimension to the level of outrage related to the incident among Western visa applicants."

Why do seemingly sensible (he writes columns for Rediff and they aren't insane) people say such moronic things?!! What's wrong with just saying "Sorry! We didn't have the right processes in place, and we'll fix it from now on." Didn't somebody tell them the cardinal rules of dealing with a PR shitstorm: "Be Honest. Be Quick. Be Concerned."?!!

Identity theft issues are woefully underappreciated in India. When charging to a credit card, too many shops in India print out the entire credit card number and expiration date on the receipt. For trash-can hunters, it's a bonanza waiting to happen.

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