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Steven X, an old schoolmate I’ve reconnected with on Facebook, recently vented derision upon the companies of the travel industry that presume that every traveler is ripe for subjection to a survey, as if a right to his time is some sort of adjunct to his doing business with them. This got me thinking about the often similarly unjustifiable appropriation of our personal time: the login.

I’m talking about the incalculable number of truly insignificant websites that insist you create a logon and password (for security purposes?!) to peruse their site. Sites that sell anything from doggy accessories, to the web extensions of local news outlets, and everything in between.

Steven travels quite a bit so the surveys are his pet peeve, but mine is data-collecting under the guise overreacting, overzealous, or overreaching security policies – almost always trumpeted as a measure implemented “for my safety”.

I've come to take it personally. The audacity of a company to posit that the simple existence of their firm transcribes into an ipso-facto right to my personal details because I wish to enjoin them in custom? I don't think so.

Some people tell me this is not really a problem and that I’m overreacting myself here, however, since I was compelled to create a database to store the logon information of all the websites that I do visit where I cannot escape this info-snare (because I’ve decided that the value of their product or service exceeds my desire for privacy), I can substantiate the volume with real numbers: 174. That’s correct. In my database I have (as of this writing) 174 login/password combinations for accessing sites I’ve had reason to do business with. Some of them legitimately merit security precautions, like my bank accounts. All told my database contains about 25 sites that I would collectively label as sensitive, requiring some sort of coded access; my pharmacy prescription service for example. I’m not talking about those.

I’m referring to the rest of the 149 or so sites I’ve frequented in the last few years that do not pose a security risk. As a rule (marketers, pay attention now please) if I land at a website while searching for something, and the site asks me to create an ‘account’ to continue, they’ve just lost my business. I go to their competitor. For those company officers that have subscribed to the lie given to them by the marketing department, that sign-ons increase sales because it gives the company detailed demographics with which to either tailor their market or methods, I wish to tell you this: you didn’t even know you missed me. Where’s the data for that?

Some sites get it right. They let me choose between ordering online with simply an address and a method of payment, or they let me create an account, often giving back to me information that I might want such as ordering history. Let’s look at some of the others though, I’ll start with utilities. “Utilities,” you ask? Certainly utilities should be secure, right? My answer: why? Why do I need to ‘sign-in” to pay any bill at all? If I know the account number and I have a method of payment, why can’t I just send money to that account? My water company (like everyone else) requires detailed personal information to sign into their site. More information actually, than what was actually required to sign up for water service to begin with. Why do they want my birth date or my mother’s maiden name? Is my water consumption really a security concern somewhere? There’s someone out there trying to calculate the number of baths I’ve taken, is that it? Are the soap and shampoo companies spying on me?

Look at it this way: if you were shopping along main street and, upon trying the door of a shop you were interested in, instead of opening for you to walk in, the door shifts just a crack and you’re instead greeted by a shifty looking individual who, after casting his eyes up and down the street, whispers conspiratorially, “Who are you”, would you enter?

The majority of errant sites that want my personal information do allow me to fill a metaphorical shopping cart before asking for actual details about me - that’s true. But this is where the hairs split because too many of them won’t reveal the deal breaker in any online transaction – taxes and shipping – until I create that account. No way. To do business with me you only need two things: my money and an address. You got me this far only to pull the “create an account to continue” before telling me how much you are actually going to charge me? That’s a transparent attempt at surreptitious data collection, you’ve wasted my time, and for that you’ve just lost another customer.