Face Not Found

My face doesn’t

match. In recent years I have been flooded with passwords. This, I discovered, is not unusual. Other people are frustrated at the level of self-service being loaded onto us and needing a password and a new “account” for everything.

Everybody from the gas stations to the big box store wants me to have an account and with it a password.

There are a couple of things going on here. The “account” is a communications tool for the business to learn more about you and connect with you directly. It also gets you off their back if you want something.

Wonder where your new prescription is? Sign in to your health care portal to send a note to your doctor, track medications and test results. Maybe someone wearing scrubs will read your questions.

So then, how many passwords does one need?

Security experts say that having just one password for everything is a very bad idea.

I’ve “archived” many of the passwords thinking that something would come up and I’d need to visit an old account. There are several of them.

The first one came with Eastern Airlines. It was just an employee number to access areas forbidden to the public.

At another airline a company ID scan notified a computer somewhere that a crew member was at the gate and ready to board the airplane or for an agent to begin a shift at the gate.

In all these connections there was a separate password, using part of the employee number.

This laptop computer required a password to get it going and another to get into certain programs.

I could use my fingerprint or another password string of letters and numbers. The fingerprint didn’t always work.

Some time ago I was prompted that my mobile phone was not secure. It needed a password.

There were options to secure my phone and one was for the phone to learn what I look like. I only had to hold the cell camera as if taking a selfie and take the picture.

Once this is in the memory of the mobile phone, I don’t have to use my password. But, the phone doesn’t always recognize me, in which case the guiltless words “face doesn’t match” scrolls across the screen.

This being the only face I have, the recourse is to key in my phone password which is an old friend’s Ham Radio call sign that I am not likely to forget.

I’m thinking I’m into this thing way too deeply. I can make it simple or make it safe, but I can’t have both ways.