[angkor]

Not to mention that whenever customer data goes offshore, it's by statute no longer subject to the privacy and security laws of the United States, e.g., HIPAA regs no longer apply.

BTW, had a very frustrating discussion yesterday with my bank's customer service representative in (I suppose) Bangalore. The telltale Indian accent, overseas hiss on the line, slight delay in voice transmission.

She insisted I'd made an error in validating my account info (I hadn't) but refused to tell me what the problem was, and that "changes" had been made to my account but she couldn't discuss those either. When we finally got to the actual reason for my call, she couldn't explain the transaction in question nor where it came from.

Very helpful people. Not.

[HarryCaul]

Remember, the official line is 'there is no problem with outsourcing!'

[1rudeboy]

Not to mention that whenever customer data goes offshore, it's by statute no longer subject to the privacy and security laws of the United States, e.g., HIPAA regs no longer apply.

Source?

[tomball]

It is even worse when foreign conglomerates are allowed to buy up American businesses. There is one case where a foreign conglomerate bought an American company (building contractor). The American company changed its name 3 times over the course of a two year period. It bought over $100k worth of materials from a small business - then refused to pay for the goods - even tho there were signed contracts in agreement for the company to make their purchase. The American small business who had been around for more than 18 years was put out of business - completely.

A foreign company bought an American company only to put another small American company out of business. And they did it while working on American government contracts.

You would think that our government would find this to be a form of economic terrorism.

[lelio]

She insisted I'd made an error in validating my account info (I hadn't) but refused to tell me what the problem was,

That's more of a clueless bank problem. What gets me about offshoring is that companies are doing it with things that they never really did well, ie customer service.

What do they think is going to happen when they send something that they had problems with 3000 miles away? Its going to magically get better? No, it gets worse.