Wiabang - The Hidden Dangers Of Pizza
By Kevin Aylward on Odd News
Forget the carbs, the real dangers of pizza are to your liberties...
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- The extra cheese and pepperoni could give you away. Officials in Missouri said they may track scofflaws by monitoring pizza delivery lists.
David Coplen, of the State Courts Administrator's office, said pizza databases could be an untapped resource. He noted that when someone calls for a pizza, they usually give their correct name, address and phone number.
Coplen said millions of dollars are owed the state in uncollected fines, fees and court costs. Some of that money could be collected by mining commercial databases.
But just how the state might tap into pizza lists isn't known. An official of Domino's Pizza said the company doesn't sell its customer information.
Domino's - Get arrested in 30 minutes or less, or you bond is free.
In case that's not scary enough, the modern day Gestapo, the debt collection industry, allegedly has bought the pizza list of a major nationwide pizza chain to try to track you down:
Odds are, over the years, you've probably become pretty darn good at avoiding bill collectors (whether it's by putting a P.O. box on your driver's license, using pre-paid cell phones, or simply moving to a different state every time they come knocking). Still, if you owe money to a U.S. court, like fines or fees, they'll probably track you down using the most reliable method they now have: pizza delivery records.
Over the years, court payment collectors have found that people are most likely to give their real name, address and phone number out when ordering a pizza!!! So, the courts or their third-party debt collectors purchase those lists and use them to efficiently track down deadbeats. There's no question it works: collections usually rise anywhere from 33% to 100% in the first year of using pizza delivery records. And, when there are millions of uncollected dollars out there, that translates to huge payoffs.
Of course, there's a privacy issue. While we all know how greedy "The Man" is, selling our name and info at every chance he gets, isn't there some sort of pizza-customer confidentiality? Apparently not. Chris Hoofnagle, of the Electronic Privacy Information Center in Washington, D.C., says, "The unfortunate reality is even if you are very careful in protecting your personal information, if you give it to any business, they can turn around and sell it." It's unclear which pizza places sell their databases. So far, only Domino's Pizza has stepped forward to say they DO NOT sell customer information. (Arizona Central) |
