I ran into a guy at work last week who apparently believes that computers confer magical powers upon one. I work at an insurance company, doing disability claims. As such, I don't have access to any information except what is relevant to disability. The "gentleman" I was talking to did not believe me in the slightest. He called in, I answered a few questions for him and then said, at what I thought would be the end of the call, "Is there anything else I can help you with?". He said, "yeah, I need help getting some orthotics. Supposedly it's covered by my insurance. What do I need to do?". Since his disability was not related to his feet in any way, I didn't have any information on if it was covered, or who he would need to contact about that, and told him so. "Wait!" he says, in total disbelief, "You don't have access? Isn't this *MyCompany*?" "Yes, it is, and I work in disability, so I would need to transfer you to...". He cut me off and continued, "And you are sitting at a computer, right? Just look it up and tell me, for Deity's sake!".
I must have explained to him seven different times that I had no access to the information he was looking for. Not that I don't want to access it, but that I can't access it, and would he like me to transfer him to the people who have more information on this sort of thing. No, he didn't want to be transferred, he wanted me to look it up, and obviously I could look it up since I had a computer sitting in front of me. He got really snotty with me, and very unhappy that I had a computer, but couldn't do what he wanted. At the end of the call, I said thank you for calling. He nastily said, "Aren't you going to ask me if there's anything else that you can help me with?".

So I said, "is there anything else regarding your disability claim that I can help you with, sir?" He hung up on me.
So yeah, apparently just the act of having a computer at work gives me access to all sorts of privileged and private information. Who knew?
