...Should I wear a tinfoil nightcap also?
Oct. 3rd, 2012 10:39 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
desperanceSo I have a British wallet and an American wallet. Apart from the simple convenience of swapping one for the other as I cross borders in my wild jetsetting international lifestyle, the reason for this is twofold: (a) it was a retail opportunity - I could buy Shiny New Wallet! before old wallet was worn out; and (b) Shiny New Wallet! was absolutely designed to hold a passport as well as other wallety things, and I did need that.
Also, Shiny New Wallet! has one of those transparent your-identity-card-goes-here pockets, for which I have never had a use, because being British and a non-driver non-employed-person I have never had an identity card which would fit there, nor the need to exhibit it.
Things change. My mode(s) of thought went thuswise: "Ooh - Shiny New Green Card! will fit transparent pocket in Shiny New Wallet!!" -- "Ooh - maybe I don't need to carry my passport with me any more, now I have Shiny New Green Card!?" -- "Ooh, maybe I should read the actual literature that came with Shiny New Green Card! to learn this sort of thing?" -- "Oh. Phooey."
The first thing I looked at in the little pile of actual literature? Was a piece of paper that said "Please use the enclosed sleeve to store your new Permanent Resident Card". And the enclosed sleeve? Rather than being transparent and Shiny! is the very opposite: it is densely paperific, and all over the front it says "We recommend use of this envelope to protect your new card and to prevent wireless communication with it."
Wait a minute, whut? The protective blandness of the thing is merely disappointing, but - wireless communication? Are they telling me my green card is hackable? And they know it's hackable, and I'm supposed to rely on a fold of paper to protect it, rather than fancy Government electronic security measures...?
Pshaw. (And I'm still leaving it in the transparent window in my wallet, so hack away...)
Also, Shiny New Wallet! has one of those transparent your-identity-card-goes-here pockets, for which I have never had a use, because being British and a non-driver non-employed-person I have never had an identity card which would fit there, nor the need to exhibit it.
Things change. My mode(s) of thought went thuswise: "Ooh - Shiny New Green Card! will fit transparent pocket in Shiny New Wallet!!" -- "Ooh - maybe I don't need to carry my passport with me any more, now I have Shiny New Green Card!?" -- "Ooh, maybe I should read the actual literature that came with Shiny New Green Card! to learn this sort of thing?" -- "Oh. Phooey."
The first thing I looked at in the little pile of actual literature? Was a piece of paper that said "Please use the enclosed sleeve to store your new Permanent Resident Card". And the enclosed sleeve? Rather than being transparent and Shiny! is the very opposite: it is densely paperific, and all over the front it says "We recommend use of this envelope to protect your new card and to prevent wireless communication with it."
Wait a minute, whut? The protective blandness of the thing is merely disappointing, but - wireless communication? Are they telling me my green card is hackable? And they know it's hackable, and I'm supposed to rely on a fold of paper to protect it, rather than fancy Government electronic security measures...?
Pshaw. (And I'm still leaving it in the transparent window in my wallet, so hack away...)