A fellow (and apparently something of a celebrity) over in the UK decided to print his banking details in his column in the Sunday newspaper, to “make the point that his money would be safe and that the spectre of identity theft was a sham,” after it came to light that the British government lost millions of peoples’ unencrypted records last year:

I have never known such a palaver about nothing. The fact is we happily hand over cheques to all sorts of unsavoury people all day long without a moment’s thought. We have nothing to fear.

Unfortunately, it backfired — someone used the information to set up a £500 direct debit from his account. He’s changed his tune now:

The bank cannot find out who did this because of the Data Protection Act and they cannot stop it from happening again. I was wrong and I have been punished for my mistake. Contrary to what I said at the time, we must go after the idiots who lost the discs and stick cocktail sticks in their eyes until they beg for mercy.

Although more information is generally a good thing, there are some pieces of info that you just don’t want in the wild.