Random things

Well, as all of you have probably heard, "Cloverfield" was number one at the box office this weekend with a total of $46 million including the holiday today. This has shattered box office records for the month of January as usually movies don't do heavily well at the box office in January since all the good movies would have come out during the Christmas season. As I said earlier, they did a good job with the movie. If you don't mind terrifying parts in a movie and if you don't mind a shaky camera for about an hour and 20 minutes, you should enjoy it, I certainly did.

I want to share with all of you something that I have learned in a book that I am reading for my class called "Intro. to IS Management". It has to do with a program called "Customer Relationship Management". It is a way for companies to better serve their customers, they use information about their customers to learn about their needs and wants to help them. I looked into this one assignment that puts me in the shoes of a husband and father that has two kids, a home mortgage, two car loans, I am also building my retirement account and putting away money for college education for my kids. This is all done with one bank that has a CRM system. Now I am suppose to imagine these six different scenarios and describe what the bank would do with the CRM information it receives, what actions the bank would take, and I also need to ask myself if any of the actions taken are an invasion of my privacy. So here it goes.

1. You and your spouse decide to have another baby: Well, I would assume that they would provide me with information on starting another loan to help pay for the costs of the new baby. I don't think it would be an invasion of privacy if they just send you information about starting a loan and the benefits of it.

2. You lose your job: I could see them informing me of trying to place a certain amount of money in the bank so I could a certain amount extra to what I have until I start a new job. Once again, they could just send info. to me about savings, so it wouldn't be an invasion to privacy.

3. One of your parents is stricken with a severe and long-term illness and has no medical insurance, leaving you to pay the bill: The bank would tell me about savings or loans, or buying insurance. Maybe just telling me how this could benefit me in times when my family is burdened with bills. I probably wouldn't see this as invasion to my privacy, but I am sure that some would.

4. You consistently incur transaction fees for using an ATM not in your bank's ATM network: They would probably inform me that they have records that I have been pulling money from my account from ATMs that they have no control over and that I am being charged more than is necessary, and would advise me to pull money from their controlled ATM machines. I would not see this as interference to privacy as I would expect banks to know this information right away.

5. Your identity is stolen: The bank would immediately inform me that my identity has been stolen and that I should change my account and transfer all of my money and funds to that new account so whoever stole my identity can't steal my money. I would not see this as invading my privacy but protecting me.

6. You decide to build an addition on your home: The bank would give you information on pulling out a loan or placing a certain amount of money in the bank for savings. This would not be an invasion of privacy since they probably see a lot of people start projects for their home like a swimming pool or home theater or whatever, so it is sent as basic information to help you.

That was my assignment, if any of my responses were way off, I am still learning about banks and I am open to any ideas on what you think the bank would do in those situations that I listed.

One more thing, I have downloaded a rental from the iTunes store, I will inform you next time on the quality of an iTunes video as this will be the first time watching something for download at the iTunes store.