Just looking to get some feedback on the scenario below:

Went to an interview with an IT company last week. All in all it went quite well. When it came time to talk salary, the interviewer explained that the method used to calculate salary was as follows:

1. Education (AA, BS)
2. Related experience
3. Professional certifications (MCSE, CCNA etc)
4. Amount of compensation my peer group was receiving. (Fair market value of services)

She then mentioned that I had failed to fill out portions of the application (SSN, Contact info). Additionally, I had neglected to complete the area that dealt with salary history. I replied that I had purposely not filled out said portion because my salary history was not listed as one of the methods used to calculate my compensation. At this, she became quite displeased and we concluded the interview.
 In addition, when I first entered the office the first thing the secretary asked was if I had filled out the application. I said no, I had not...as it asked for allot of personal information and if I did not take the job I didn't want that kind of information in the hands of people I didn't have any affiliation with. She seemed quite displeased to say the least.
 So I ask you...fellow AR15ers, do you think I was being overly paranoid about misuse of information, or was I simply being smart?

What does this have to do with firearms you ask? I say, not a damn thing. General discussion is just that, general.

Good for you, the nosey bastards have quite enough info on us as it is.
Won't help with the job search though.
Btw, I refused to give my SSN to a frigging home delivery dairy, and told them it was none of their business, as I had owned the house where I live for 15 years......and they refused us milk delivery!!!!!
Screw em, I will take my business elsewhere.

Shotar,
 Thanks for the words of wisdom; I will take into consideration what you have written. For what its worth, you are oh so correct about the IT profession "slimming down." Lots of layoffs in this area and people are starting to panic.
BTW, they did send me an offer letter but they lowballed me and I declined. I was over qualified anyway. Back to the drawing board...
Had my second interview with Northrop-Grumman yesterday and I think it’s going to work out well.
I have high hopes anyway ;-) I'm trying to hold out for all the Benjamin’s I can get.

Vortex, shotar's advice not withstanding, i think you were fine.  i didn't get a job once because i wouldn't sign the the bottom of the application page.  it was the typical paragraph with things like, everything i've written is true to my knowledge, i am aware of this and that, but it also had a single sentence saying that i agreed to be searched without reason at anytime.  and it specifically mentioned personal items.  i told the woman interviewing me i wasn't signing it until that line was stricken or re-written to say something about probably cause and/or personal items (like my purse or person) would not be subject to said searches without a warrant!  i told her it was fine if they wanted to search the desk since it was company property anyway, but the constitution protected me from that kind of crap and i wan't going to sign it away for some job i wasn't really interested in anyway. (though i didn't say it quite like that.)

anywho, i think you did fine if you can live with the consequences.  on a related note, no employer can ask you any personal questions.  none whatsoever.  nothing about marital status, nothing about hobbies.  the questions [i]have[/i] to pertain directly to your ability to do the job based on the job description and past employment.  period.  you could be schizophrenic and they couldn't ask about that technically (except maybe the "is there anything that would impede your ability to do this job")

You must not have been in this business in the late 80's and early 90's. The IT market then was worse than it is now, but we're getting back to that environment very quickly.

I never fill out my social and emergency contact info until I get hired. In my industry however, it is mandatory to do a background check before hiring someone or even extending an offer. So I put that off this the very last moment. I have never ran into problems. Everyone I have interviewed with in the course of my career have understood this need for privacy.  

By "personal information", do you just mean SSN and that sort of thing, or were they asking you about your personal life?

There are many topics that are against federal law to delve into, such as religious beliefs.  On an interview around 1990, a place took my photo -- illegal, I found out later, since it can be used for racial screening.

The market right now is worse than in 1990.  Then, at least there were interviews.  Now, I'm hearing about people who have been looking for months without even getting interviews.  Might partly be regional, since Seattle was hit hard by the dot.bomb stupidity.

71-Hour_Achmed, I don't think we're at the level of despair that was common in the early 90's. There may have been more interviews back then, but they were using them only to collect resumes. Few were actually hiring. I think now that they do it all on the web, they don't need to resort to wasting their time or your time anymore.

I still see many jobs for programmers and engineers today (at least in SV). This was not the case in the early 90's.

personal life, sorry.  didn't realize the distinction wasn't obvious.  i knew what i was thinking.  [:)]  basically they can ask [b]only[/b] job related questions.  nothing about personal life at all.