Friday sort of snuck up on me. When it did, it brought along a multitude of small annoyances. My cable modem has been flaking out, intermittently. When the modem is working, my pond is flooding and blowing the fuse to my office. I've managed to get a little work done, but I'm about ready to take this as a sign and go somewhere else. I'll admit to being a bit of a techno-geek, but every once in awhile, computers disgust me.
Like, when I get a letter from this company, "NetNet", notifying (in the tiniest font I've ever seen) me that they lost a computer tape containing my personal information: social security number, tax history, etc--everything that goes on student loan forms. The trouble is, I never used "NelNet" to apply for my financial aid, so I wonder why they had my information to lose it in the first place.
I'm not the only one a little peeved. An article in yesterday's Colorado Springs Gazette shows I'm not the only one:
DENVER - A Nebraska based loan processing company has notified about 188,000 college students and parents, mostly from Colorado, that a computer tape containing their personal information is missing.
Officials from Nelnet Inc. of Lincoln, Neb., said there is no evidence that anyone has misused the information, but are recommending those affected place a "fraud alert" on their files at any of the nation's three largest credit reporting agencies.
Curiously, the letter I received said nothing about fraud alerts. It listed the credit reporting agencies, yes, but suggested I only contact them if something unusual appeared.
They blame UPS:
The tape was part of a UPS shipment that disappeared recently on its way from Colorado to Austin, Texas. It included detailed student loan information such as Social Security numbers and other account-related details.
UPS notified Nelnet about the missing tape July 10....Christopher Garbo of Castle Rock, said he had no idea why his personal information was on a tape.
"Why were they shipping this through UPS? Or do they have security processes for extremely sensitive information? It seems very careless," he said.
UPS spokeswoman Lynnette McIntire said the lost package was unusual.
"It was lost in the process in transit, and we felt terrible about it because that is so rare for us," she said. "What we did (was) an extensive search in every place on where it had been, and there was no indication that it had gone out of UPS's possession, but we just didn't find it."
...great.
With the fall semester fast approaching, (August snuck up on me as much as Friday,) I'm anticipating more computer problems to come. (I'm an expert at leaving one small thing wrong on the forms, causing mass headaches come the first week of class.) Still, I'm taking a light load this semester, catching up on my math credits, and then transferring to Boulder--apparently one of the two schools in Colorado who did not trust their loan information to NelNet.
In the meantime, I'm just riding the waves. And trying not to throw my computer out the window. I probably won't get to my post on changing lands and the meaning of "value" today. I'll either try to get it in small bytes over the weekend, or start a new "series within a series" on the subject on Monday.
With that, I'm off to take a quiet walk, where there are no computers.... farewell!
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