[john70t]

The browser headers can be changed, but the URL..?
Even if this was an iota legit, why would you trust ebay more than a guy with a credit card machine selling candy on the street corner?
The fact they are huge, and well known, doesn't make them any more trustworthy. The fact they are huge means that they probably sub-contract cc processing, which means a whole lot more people on the processing chain has acess to the info.

A cashless/credit society needs to have solid security and verification procedures. Though it's gotten better recently, identity theft as a whole viewed as a single corp would be one of the largest in this country. Obviously the gov hasen't been paying attention.
There are tens, if not hundreds, of information brokering companies LEGALLY selling your personal data, and reports of unsecured/encrypted company databases being compromised happen regularly.

Even schools and other institutions use ss#'s on a casual basis and these can't be considered valid anymore. Identification through retina/fingerprints will work for a while until that data gets copied and figured out how to be sent.
I remember working at a huge community college as a recycler, and finding foot-thick printouts of students name/adress/ss info but when I told the records dept they just shrugged. Tort law is out of control, but if those individuals thought they could be held personally liable, I wonder if they would have a different attitude.


The scary thing is some people on this site have vigerously argued against privacy measures, and I wonder about their motivations......
Cash is king.