[Azred]

Not necessarily true, Rokenn. When Belle had her wallet stolen back in early March, Visa was able to detect the misuse of her card after only 4 hours, because the purchases were outside the normal parameters of her purchasing habits. On the one hand, some people might think a purchasing profile is "too much information", but I don't mind since it helped up recover the losses quickly. On the other hand, what if we had decided to simply go on a shopping spree (perhaps we had won the lottery and were simply enjoying the money) and Visa decided that "their card must be stolen"? Furthermore, if you make unusually large cash withdrawals from you bank accounts (should you be lucky enough to have large amounts to withdraw) that are outside your normal habits, that can be a sign of your desire to purchase drugs. Yes, banks do watch for this kind of activity and can report it to the DEA.

For the most part, I agree that only terrorists need worry; however, if normal people who, for whatever reason, are doing something outside their normal routine that alone should not raise a red flag in some government database. Don't we have the freedom to break out of the normal anymore?