3 ms·

Anything you were surprised about?

by xrange 10y ago

x0x0 10y ago
I just went through it again. It is a centimeter of paper. They had every address (and a few extra!) I've lived at in my life. They had the address I'd stayed at with relatives for 6 weeks between moves. The email address I used to purchase (I use a unique email address per place I give an email to, eg store_name@mydomain.com) stuff from: jcrew, ebags, performance bike. They had multiple sources for address information, including the CRAs, USPS, E-merges (voter registration), Neustar, Alloy Media, and a dozen companies I've never heard of. They had college records from Alloy Media. They had emails for my partner. They had deed information for most places I've lived. They had CLUE information -- all car insurance claims -- for me and for people I've shared car insurance with. They had spaces for FAA licensing, hunting/fishing licenses, lawsuits, payday loans, watercraft, ATF (gun) licenses and investigations, marriage licenses, and sex offender status.
- syngrog66 10y ago
  this is why, among the many many rules I've adopted in life, as an adult with an increasing amount of RL experience: (1) never fill out forms when it's not truly necessary, and (2) always pay in cash (whether USD or Euro or Bitcoin). Oh and use "ad blocking" and decline/disable cookies/js/etc as much as possible. related: we also live in a world increasingly of "wallet-based pricing/acceptance". which means, if someone (a vendor, a thief) might charge you a higher price (or be more likely to attack/steal from you) if they have reason to believe you are upper income, then, you want to minimize how much information they have about you, esp about your identity. For example, if you're a software engineer by profession, you never ever want a vendor to know your profession (or your name, if a google of that can lead to your profession, eg.) before you hear from them the price, or the "availability" of the product. I'd love to think we live in a world where that shouldn't matter. But an increasing amount of the evidence I've seen, with my own eyes/ears (not theory, not second-hand), is consistent with having to take that into account. generally, the less the other party in a transaction (vendor, fellow citizen, etc.) knows about you, as an individual, the more likely you are to receive an objectively fair/neutral price/response. They think you're poor? Decline. They think are minority? Decline. They think you have higher income/wealth? Higher price. They think you have lower income/wealth? Suddenly not available for <reasons>.
  - x0x0 10y ago
    My solution is to buy as much stuff as possible from amazon. They know just about everything I buy, but they have mostly the same incentives as me, ie my information doesn't leak out of amazon. They may let people market through them, but they're sure gonna make sure nothing leaks out...
    - whorleater 10y ago
      Isn't that effectively "putting all your eggs in one basket"? If Amazon changes business models at some point in the future, or is breached somehow, they'd have a goldmine of information about you. If you split up your shopping at least each individual shop has less incentive to reveal your information to competitions shops.

Anything you were surprised about?

by xrange 10y ago

Anything you were surprised about?

x0x0 10y ago

I just went through it again. It is a centimeter of paper. They had every address (and a few extra!) I've lived at in my life. They had the address I'd stayed at with relatives for 6 weeks between moves. The email address I used to purchase (I use a unique email address per place I give an email to, eg store_name@mydomain.com) stuff from: jcrew, ebags, performance bike. They had multiple sources for address information, including the CRAs, USPS, E-merges (voter registration), Neustar, Alloy Media, and a dozen companies I've never heard of. They had college records from Alloy Media. They had emails for my partner. They had deed information for most places I've lived. They had CLUE information -- all car insurance claims -- for me and for people I've shared car insurance with. They had spaces for FAA licensing, hunting/fishing licenses, lawsuits, payday loans, watercraft, ATF (gun) licenses and investigations, marriage licenses, and sex offender status.

syngrog66 10y ago
this is why, among the many many rules I've adopted in life, as an adult with an increasing amount of RL experience: (1) never fill out forms when it's not truly necessary, and (2) always pay in cash (whether USD or Euro or Bitcoin). Oh and use "ad blocking" and decline/disable cookies/js/etc as much as possible. related: we also live in a world increasingly of "wallet-based pricing/acceptance". which means, if someone (a vendor, a thief) might charge you a higher price (or be more likely to attack/steal from you) if they have reason to believe you are upper income, then, you want to minimize how much information they have about you, esp about your identity. For example, if you're a software engineer by profession, you never ever want a vendor to know your profession (or your name, if a google of that can lead to your profession, eg.) before you hear from them the price, or the "availability" of the product. I'd love to think we live in a world where that shouldn't matter. But an increasing amount of the evidence I've seen, with my own eyes/ears (not theory, not second-hand), is consistent with having to take that into account. generally, the less the other party in a transaction (vendor, fellow citizen, etc.) knows about you, as an individual, the more likely you are to receive an objectively fair/neutral price/response. They think you're poor? Decline. They think are minority? Decline. They think you have higher income/wealth? Higher price. They think you have lower income/wealth? Suddenly not available for <reasons>.
- x0x0 10y ago
  My solution is to buy as much stuff as possible from amazon. They know just about everything I buy, but they have mostly the same incentives as me, ie my information doesn't leak out of amazon. They may let people market through them, but they're sure gonna make sure nothing leaks out...
  - whorleater 10y ago
    Isn't that effectively "putting all your eggs in one basket"? If Amazon changes business models at some point in the future, or is breached somehow, they'd have a goldmine of information about you. If you split up your shopping at least each individual shop has less incentive to reveal your information to competitions shops.