Is a little privacy too much to ask?

It's Saturday afternoon in Future Shop. It looks like everyone in Burlington is here in search of a new toy.

I'm at the customer service desk waiting to exchange The Matrix video for an Eric Clapton DVD. The clerk is looking after the guy beside me, an older fellow with intense eyes and a wiry grey-brown beard. There's a young couple on my other side and beside them is a group of teenagers returning a cellphone.

The clerk finally gets around to me. He OKs the exchange.

"What's your phone number?" he asks, his fingers readied on the computer keyboard.

I lean forward and mumble it.

"Sorry?" he says, asking me to repeat it. I don't want to seem paranoid but I pay $24 a year for an unlisted phone number so people I don't know can't call me. Now I'm being asked to give it away to strangers for free.

I quickly repeat it. But just in case the crowd didn't catch it, the clerk says it again, loudly. It's the same at Radio Shack. What's your name and address, they ask when you buy something.

Drug stores also ask for your address and phone number when you're buying a prescription. It allows them to keep a record of your prescriptions. Good reason. Radio Shack uses the information to mail out flyers as well as for market analysis. You can refuse to give it, although I've never been told I had the option.

A clerk at Future Shop told me their files are traced by phone numbers so if someone comes in without a receipt, they can look it up according to their number.

Our privacy is protected in a number of ways. Your medical records are confidential and unless you sign a consent form releasing the information. Most people's incomes are confidential, unless they're a civil servant or in a union and receive a standard pay rate.

Your university grades are also your own private information. You can get an unlisted phone number which also ensures people don't know where you live. But there are several entry points for privacy invaders, several ways in which our privacy is being eroded.

Strangers can find out who you are by tracing your license plate. They have to go to the motor vehicle office and wait in line and it will cost $20 but it's possible. The system was set up for people to retrieve information on used cars. But it can be used by anyone.

Your marital status is also public domain. Anyone can go to a family court office and search through the list of divorce files. They have to make the trip to the courthouse and they have to know which court it was filed in. But it's possible.

On the business end of things, anyone can file a Freedom of Information request to the various levels of government for reports, studies, audits and any number of items. It's time-consuming and often frustrating. But it's possible.

Most of these methods take time and effort. And the search may not always be fruitful. But it takes no time or money to listen in on the customer next to you. It's the easiest way to access private information and it's made possible by simple lack of discretion.

One of the worst examples of that lack of discretion happens in doctor's offices. How many times have you sat in a waiting room and heard a secretary call a patient and give them their test results? You may not know the person they called but you now know they have a urinary tract infection.

You may pay extra for an unlisted phone number but in one second, it is given out to complete strangers in a store. Sometimes you can be asked for even more information than just your name and number.

I was once in a drug store waiting for a prescription. There was a crowd, as I'd gone in at 5.30 p.m., a peak period. Many were standing staring at the pharmacists as if it would make them work faster. One pharmacist was a little frenzied and, on top of everything else, he couldn't find my order.

Suddenly he yelled over the top of the counter, "What was it for?" The crowd looked over at me. I stood there, stunned. Why would I want to share personal medical information with this crowd of strangers, even if it was only a prescription for a sore throat?

He saw the look on my face and later apologized.

Once lost, privacy is hard to regain. You shouldn't have to worry that a trip to the store could result in a loss of privacy. As a woman, you have to be even more careful. You can refuse to give your number to the sales clerk or write down your phone number and address for the pharmacist so you don't have to say it aloud.

But in the end, it should be up to businesses to design policies to ensure privacy. They should have a system that doesn't require a person to give personal data in front of strangers. We shouldn't automatically be asked for our name and address.

As for a pharmacist who yells your order across a crowded room, unfortunately you can't outlaw bad manners.