Dale Dutcher wrote: > I find this discussion a simply fascinating > example of paranoia that is often attached > to computers and a person's perceived > confidentiality or even sovereignty of > their data. I don't consider it paranoia -- numbers are too easy to steal or fake. People are already losing financially from someone ruining their credit status, or from the credit bureaus confusing them with someone else, in spite of the multiple safeguards in place to prevent that. Would you want someone trying to treat you to pull up your records and incorrectly find that you'd had your appendix removed? Or that there was no record of a diagnosis of hypertension, that you've had for years? The people who keep records for a living make an alarming number of mistakes, the thought of the feds (who brought you the IRS) taking on a project this massive gives me the willies. Reasonable fears are NOT paranoia. Sylvia Steiger RN SFNP BS NFPP, Cheyenne Wyoming USA http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/SylviaRN