Food Services Slipup

If you live in Village, then are you aware how easy it is to have your eating habits tracked? I mean all of it... When you eat, how much you eat, how much you've spent. Everything. Anyone with your student number can find out all of that.

I've recently heard about a case where exactly that happened. A first-year student of my acquaintance was recently chewed out by her mother for skipping classes. Said parent knew that her daughter hadn't been in class, because she'd called up Food Services and asked them for information about her daughter's meal timetable. All she needed to give them was the student's ID number, and to tell them that she was this student's mother. Out came all the invasion of privacy that one could want.

This is intolerable. First of all, we're supposed to be adults. That a department of the university would give out that information to a nervous or suspicious parent who won't let go -- even though their offspring may be five hundred kilometers away -- is just incredible.

On a darker note, anyone could have called up and requested that information. (It's been tried.) Thank you, Food Services, for making some stalker's life that much easier.

Three words, guys: right to privacy. Yes, the Food Services computers tabulate all of this information automatically, and it needn't be used harmfully; for example, compiling statistics for some form of market research. But no one should be able to find out those specifics about anyone.

Matt Walsh
mathNOOZ Investigative Reporter