Won’t happen

The N.C. Utilities Commission is eating crow after inadvertently posting a Greensboro moving company’s confidential information online in violation of the commission’s own privacy policy.

The gaffe happens at a time when the commission has issued fines of up to $1,000 against more than 50 moving companies – and is threatening to yank their operating licenses – for failing to follow commission rules.

Commission Chairman Edward Finley Jr. last week apologized to Ray Moving and Storage for posting company owners’ Social Security numbers, birth dates and fingerprints from an FBI criminal background check. The moving company filed a complaint with the state Attorney General, demanding that the commission reprimand or fire the staff member responsible for the breach.

One of the owners of the company, John Deare, is just a bit nonplussed about the situation. “We were afraid of something just like this – and it came to pass.”

Of course it did. Mr. Deare, I would hazard a guess that you made exactly that point to someone at the commission, didn’t you? Perhaps more than once? Perhaps forcefully, just a bit hot under the collar? Well sir, you have committed the unpardonable offense–you have pissed off a bureaucrat. And for that, you must pay. We can’t have you business owners telling the Emperor that he has no clothes. Why, that could cause the entire rotten edifice to collapse under its own rotten weight.

Yes, I’ve made this mistake before. Got the “Been There, Done That” t-shirt, too. I’ll post a picture of it if I can ever get all the blood to wash out.

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