Random generated passcodes

lulu650

I've just been posted a code for an account that I think is a bit near the knuckle. It's not completely offensive but I would feel really uncomfortable to use it and it looks like someone in IT is having a joke. I asked for a new one but decided to put in a complaint mainly because I was assured it was completely randomly generated. I believe a computer programmer would disallow some words and mixes or, alternatively, someone would manually check the passcodes before they are sent out.

Has anyone come across this before?

I don't want to say what it spells or discuss whether I'm overreacting. It's enough to say I don't want to use it.

NoMore

I doubt anybody is allowed to see it, I would expect it to be an automatically generated and sent directly to you.


Whats the problem anyway, only you are ever going to see it, so its not going to offend anyone else and by the sound of it its going to be easy to remember.

colsten

lulu650 wrote: »

I've just been posted a code for an account that I think is a bit near the knuckle. It's not completely offensive but I would feel really uncomfortable to use it and it looks like someone in IT is having a joke.

What is a code that is 'near the knuckle'? How can a code be offensive?

Hazzanet

colsten wrote: »

What is a code that is 'near the knuckle'? How can a code be offensive?

So eight random characters...

YOUSMELLY

Scarpacci

I don't think anybody would check the codes before they go out. That would be an unnecessary privacy intrusion, posing a security problem for account holders.

It's an oversight. You're right that there really should be a list of rejected phrases or combinations, partly for rude words and also for bad combinations (1111, 5678, etc). When I have had to code something to generate a random string that a user might see, a bad word filter has always been a part of it. Even then some word or combination I didn't think of or see as bad might still slip through, but it does lower the chance of offending the user.

I don't know whether I would personally complain, but there's certainly no harm in letting the company know they might want to look at how they're generating these codes.

Goldiegirl

I would imagine it's just an unfortunate co-incidence that you've been generated a code that you find offensive.


Most people would have probably laughed it off - it's just additional bad luck that the code went to a person who was rather sensitive to innuendo or implied smuttiness!


By all means ask for a new passcode, and let them know that the combination that you got could be construed as being rude, so they can tighten up their systems.


But a complaint is a bit strong - what would you hope to achieve from making a complaint?


PS - Shame you won't tell us what the code was, then we could all have a nudge and a snigger ! :rotfl:

colsten

Hazzanet wrote: »

So eight random characters...

YOUSMELLY

see what you mean. I had thought of just numbers

bengal-stripe

lulu650 wrote: »

I've just been posted a code for an account that I think is a bit near the knuckle. It's not completely offensive but I would feel really uncomfortable to use.....

Aren't those one-off codes. You use it once to get into the account, then you change it to something in accordance with your personal preference.

worried_jim

bengal-stripe wrote: »

Aren't those one-ff codes. You use it once to get into the account, then you change it to something in accordance with your personal preference.

Reminds me of a role I once had in a telecoms company, new customers were allocated a new telephone number randomly at point of ordering a service, in actual fact there were pages and pages of numbers so if I felt the need I could select an appropriate number, for instance I had a customer whose surname was Bond so I found him a number that featured 007.

Other side of the coin I could be just as devilish and a customer wouldn't stop banging on about Jesus and trying to convert me. I bet he was thrilled on the day of installation to find out his home telephone number started 666.

Goldiegirl

worried_jim wrote: »

Reminds me of a role I once had in a telecoms company, new customers were allocated a new telephone number randomly at point of ordering a service, in actual fact there were pages and pages of numbers so if I felt the need I could select an appropriate number, for instance I had a customer whose surname was Bond so I found him a number that featured 007.

Other side of the coin I could be just as devilish and a customer wouldn't stop banging on about Jesus and trying to convert me. I bet he was thrilled on the day of installation to find out his home telephone number started 666.

Back in the dim and distant past, when I worked a High Street bank, when a customer opened a current account, the account number was allocated manually.

It used to please me to give a customer an easy to remember number, but it never occurred to me to see if I could give them an appropriate number. I missed a bit of fun there - anything to brighten up the day was my motto

warehouse

Yes, I've come across this before. I used to be responsible for new password distribution many many years back for a technical reporting system. Passwords came over from Germany in tear off envelopes so they couldn't be tampered with. I keyed in the number on the envelope then gave it unopened to the user.

One person I knew quite well was a Special Constable and let everyone know about it. He got the randomly generated password of "piglet".

He was very offended and I did think it a bit of a stupid word to have in the database in case it was given to a slightly heavier person as well.