Privacy Please

This blog isn't about my birthday. My birthday was last week, so it's history.

But see the card I got on my birthday? It was the only card I received on my actual birthday. And my mother made a special trip to the post office to make sure the card she sent to me arrived on my special day. It didn't, arriving the next day instead.

When I opened the above card, it said happy birthday with a message that read in part, "In honor of your birthday, you may be eligible to receive two round trip airline tickets to any major international airport anywhere in the continental USA . . . "

So it was a pitch for some travel company. Isn't that a bit unnerving? I mean, their marketing department somehow knew it was my birthday and knew what date to mail the card so it arrived on my birthday.

I go through great lengths to protect my privacy, and ultimately my identity. My Facebook profile has only a modicum of information, not even my hometown. Just to be sure, I Googled my name and Facebook. Some other guy with my same name popped up again and again. Not me. Boo-yeah.

But still I wonder. For example, I recently got an e-mail from a hotel chain asking how I enjoyed my recent stay at a specific hotel in Iowa. I enjoyed my stay there. What I would like to know is how they got my e-mail address since I didn't give it to them.

It seems like every day I read or see in the news how our privacy is becoming compromised by the internet. There is a new site called Spokeo.com where visitors can supposedly acquire a wealth of information on just about anybody.

Hmmmmmm. I went to the site and typed my name in there. They did have my correct address, my correct zodiac sign, and listed my wife and kids' names there correctly as well. But they also had an extra person living in our house, somebody I didn't know. And they listed me as only having a high school education. Wrongo!

For the fun of it, I looked up my brother Gary. That was more interesting. The site did say he was retired, plays sports and is interested in physical fitness. All correct. But it also said he owned cats, enjoys gardening and has a graduate degree. That's all news to me.

I still think I'm pretty good at operating under the internet radar. That's good too because my sitemeter has been tracking an unusual number of hits from the Middle East and Egypt in particular.

These visitors found my blog because of a doctored photo I posted, with some attractive looking women admiring a billboard picture of my mug. I'm hoping these blog lurkers are coming to check out the women in the picture and not yours truly.

You just never know though.