Oracle:
The house policies shift and morph over time and our whim, but some common threads run through them:
-We DON'T DO PHONE SOLICITATION. Take our number off your list, be off, and have a nice day.
-You DON'T GET OUR SSN's, Phone #, zip code, or anything other than the bare legal minimum necessary to conduct our transaction. This means you get cash, or a card and a signature on paper.
-We DO NOT sign for credit cards on electronic pen pads. I will happily scribble something that is blatantly scribble, however, so as to make your boss happy.
-We DO NOT CONSENT TO ANY SEARCH, EVER. If you had just cause, you'd have a warrant, otherwise you're just fishing. In any event, it's never in OUR interest to consent. Ever.
-We don't sign anything that isn't a contract, in which there is an exchange of value. Without an exchange of value, the value to me is...what? (People sign stuff all the time indemnifying some other organization against something, for NO GOOD REASON) If there isn't a clear value to me in signing the document, I don't sign it.
and the master house policy is:
Our policy is that your policy is not allowed to be Our problem.
As I've stated in the past, a policy is at best an implementation of a principle, and the moment the context shifts, the policy/procedure is no longer valid, and the outcome is likely to be perverse.
Well founded principles can be applied to any context, through awareness and good judgement.
The principle that underlies most of these policies is simply that of being aware of what your enlightened self interest actually is, and that promiscuously granted consent to BS left and right (the way most people do it) really isn't in your best interest.
Our society and legal system is setup to protect you when consent is with held, but this amounts to nothing if you obediently hand out consent as is it were meaningless ritual.
In general, people want to get along peacably, and have been conditioned to be non-confrontational. All sorts of problems have cropped up as a result.
The heart of the problem is that too many folks don't know how to "hold their own", which is to say, to actually Confront another, in a polite, sane, effective manner, without bluster. Too many believe that to Be Confrontational is to be irrational, and to be riding the edge of violence and illigitimate use of force.
This is not so at all.
Sigh.
It's almost as if people need to practice some key phrases, like, "I'm sorry, I have a problem with this." or "This isn't working for me".
We've probably all sat through too many business meetings with reflexively nodding heads, followed later on in the hall with muttering about problems with what everyone just agreed to. The most refreshing (and rare) meetings are when someone other than me* has the 'nads to politely say, "this is nuts!".
*as for me, my resume actually contains the phrase "Professional Heretic", so they pretty much expect that sort of thing from me.
