Gift Card Scams and A Privacy Lesson

I got a call from the "Internal Revenue Service" warning me that I will sbe arrested if I don't make an immediate tax payment. I don't work far from the IRS, so I offered (in jest) that I would walk right over and pay. The "agent" would only take a gift card, for which I would read him the numbers. He offered some nearby locations, where I could purchase the gift card and call him with the numbers to make payment.

Evidently this works and many people are fooled, even they owe no taxes. The FTC is warning consumers about such gift card scam demands in the alert below. There are people who cooperate, as absurd as this scenario is. And these people also agree to all kinds of things with their personal information, if a company asks the right way or uses a certain pattern.

This is why simplistic just require "opt-in" proposals are not the right model for privacy legislation - even GDPR has 6 different ways to lawfully collect/use data (3 relevant to most companies). Consent is sometimes the right option, but it is often not, and many other factors are needed to ensure fair processing.

This doesn't mean we need to be overly paternalistic and treat everyone as gullible and in need of protection from themselves. But we do need to take homo deus as he/she comes - human and imperfect - and shape law accordingly.