The sharing of personal information is happening at a rate and scale never before seen. For many people, displaying their entire life in a Facebook profile is no big deal, but for even the sharingest of sharers a line is drawn when they are asked to give up their Social Security Number online.
Ask yourself this question: To what websites have you ever willingly turned over your SSN? Probably not many. Maybe it was your bank or other financial institution or it could have had something to do with your taxes. You were still probably a bit sketched out weren’t you? Now stop and think for a second about the hundreds of millions or even billions of advertising dollars that were invested in gaining your trust to punch in those 9 digits on your keyboard.
This leads to my second question: Would you ever give your SSN number to a web start-up because they made a cool explanatory video about their product and had a nice website ? Well I did. And I am very confident thousands, if not millions of other people will as well. It really goes to show you how a small budget, smart branding and the right message can influence people to do things that were once unheard of. See their product at squareup.com it’s friggin sweet.
I’ve given my laser card details a couple of times to pay road tolls, but that’s as far as I’d go with that. Saying that, I don’t hold back at all with the facebook stuff, I’ll tell you almost anything you want to know about me, just don’t ask for my banking details. So, yeah, great work on by the “Square” guys, but in fairness, that thing would sell itself.