6 ms·

I kept my last car for 9 years, and when I bought my current car, I noticed an immediate and MASSIVE uptick in postal spam. Not just vehicle-related either -- I

I kept my last car for 9 years, and when I bought my current car, I noticed an immediate and MASSIVE uptick in postal spam. Not just vehicle-related either -- I have a feeling that "registering a new car" feeds heavily into all sorts of "target this person" algorithms. I wish there was some way to opt out of this.

EastSmith 7y ago
A simple fix for this would be the sender to be required to show where they obtained your personal data from: "We have obtained your personal data from the following company / database".
- dredmorbius 7y ago
  Attribution is one thing. Right to legal remedy (read: lawsuit), far more powerful.
mywittyname 7y ago
Can you own and register a vehicle through a business without purchasing commercial insurance?
- jedberg 7y ago
  I'm not 100% sure but I think the answer is no. You can however purchase a car via a trust if you want to obfuscate ownership. You can also have a law firm purchase it for you. Of course both of those things cost money and only really rich people do it.
  - Keverw 7y ago
    Interesting about trusts, I've seen articles talking about that, wealthy people do that to protect their assets. I know celebrities create trusts to try to hide where they live for privacy since they don't want to be stalked in their own home by fans. But some states apparently consider large Diesel Vehicle automatically commercial if registered to a trust, instead of a living person. So fuel tax permits, log book, etc. Many states exempt RVs from those rules, and it goes by your state of domicile. So legal in FL, your also legal in TX or IL... So to drive a 38 foot RV, towing a Jeep weighting over 26,000 pounds is just needing a large checkbook, no real experience in about half the US. I know NY and TX are a bit stricter, but FL, SD, TN, OH it's just having the money, thanks to the RV lobby wanting to make it easier for retired couples. Kinda interesting If you lived in NY, sold the house, then rented a mailbox and spend a night in South Dakota, then spend a half hour at the very empty small town DMV. Now you have a more powerful driver license by default than New York State issues. School buses are considered commercial vehicles, but rip out the seats, put a bed, fridge, stove, bathroom and retitle it as a RV, then no longer need a CDL to drive the same bus too, but some states make it easier than others to do a conversion. Some states it's just filing out a form, while others are more picky wanting to inspect it.
  - Sabinus 7y ago
    So the rich can afford to buy privacy but it's a luxury for normal people.
- LinuxBender 7y ago
  In most states you can get a bond, both for personal and business vehicles.
yeezul 7y ago
Not saying it's the case, but could this also be in relation to the dealer and/or insurance companies you've used for quotes?
akira2501 7y ago
> I wish there was some way to opt out of this. In California, there sort of is. First: you can register _two_ addresses with the DMV. One is your "mailing address" and is what is shown on your ID and gets sold with dumps like this, the other is your "residence address" and is a little bit more protected. If someone tries to run your plate number through any civilian system, they're only going to get your "mailing address" and NEVER your "residence address." Second: you can get a "Private Mailbox" service. PMBs are really useful in their own right, but with USPS rules you CANNOT send unsolicited or bulk mail to these addresses. The USPS keeps a database and is very good about filtering these off. So: Get a PMB and use it as your "mailing address." This will keep the marketers one step away from your real information and will prevent large amounts of spam from reaching you. Most PMBs have a "forward when full" or "forward on schedule" service, where they'll empty your box for you and then forward all of that to whatever address you provide them. I've been doing this for 10 years now and it's been fantastic.
- dredmorbius 7y ago
  Is PMB a USPS or private enterprise service?
  - Keverw 7y ago
    Private companies offer PMBs. You have to fill out a form to allow them to handle the mail and get it notarized which is part of the USPS regulations. Some states even allow a PMB to be used for both mailing and residence address for driver licenses and registration, such as South Dakota. You need proof you spent a night at a campground or hotel, along with a receipt for your PMB. So if you sell your house to hit the road full time, your former state might be picky about address so people use a relative address or just change their domicile to a friendly state who recognizes full time RVing. Also kinda interesting South Dakota made it illegal for red light cameras to access the DMV database, and they even revoked access to a city in Iowa on the border. So police officers must phone in all driver license and registration checks instead of being able to use the computer. So no longer automated, but cops will still manually review the footage and write a ticket as a work around. So basically no difference they witnessed it in person or sitting at a computer watching remotely. Just no longer automated process, wouldn't surprise me if for all other states still automatic but it has like a inbox for SD plates to manually review. I guess cities all away across the country are in violation of South Dakota law possibly, but I guess at most they can do is just deny you access to their computers. and if you ended up getting a ticket it's probably still valid no matter what SD law says. I know in Ohio there's been a battle between the state and cities. Dayton for example has illegally kept the cameras on, now the state says they can but all money collected will be subtracted from any money the city gets from the state. Be interesting if Dayton ever captured any South Dakota plates, but not sure if it'd be going too far if a sheriff in a small county decided to expedite the mayor of Dayton, Ohio to stand trial for violating South Dakota data access laws.
Notorious_BLT 7y ago
When I bought a home, I got a wave of homeowner spam mail with "postage-paid" envelopes. I started mailing them their own mail back, torn to shreds, in their prepaid envelope, and eventually it stopped.
Nicholas_C 7y ago
The plus side is that all this spam is helping fund the USPS.
Cougher 7y ago
"I wish there was some way to opt out of this." Agreed, but I would much rather it be opt-in. Privacy should be a default, not an added burden.

EastSmith 7y ago

A simple fix for this would be the sender to be required to show where they obtained your personal data from: "We have obtained your personal data from the following company / database".

dredmorbius 7y ago
Attribution is one thing. Right to legal remedy (read: lawsuit), far more powerful.

mywittyname 7y ago

Can you own and register a vehicle through a business without purchasing commercial insurance?

jedberg 7y ago
I'm not 100% sure but I think the answer is no. You can however purchase a car via a trust if you want to obfuscate ownership. You can also have a law firm purchase it for you. Of course both of those things cost money and only really rich people do it.
- Keverw 7y ago
  Interesting about trusts, I've seen articles talking about that, wealthy people do that to protect their assets. I know celebrities create trusts to try to hide where they live for privacy since they don't want to be stalked in their own home by fans. But some states apparently consider large Diesel Vehicle automatically commercial if registered to a trust, instead of a living person. So fuel tax permits, log book, etc. Many states exempt RVs from those rules, and it goes by your state of domicile. So legal in FL, your also legal in TX or IL... So to drive a 38 foot RV, towing a Jeep weighting over 26,000 pounds is just needing a large checkbook, no real experience in about half the US. I know NY and TX are a bit stricter, but FL, SD, TN, OH it's just having the money, thanks to the RV lobby wanting to make it easier for retired couples. Kinda interesting If you lived in NY, sold the house, then rented a mailbox and spend a night in South Dakota, then spend a half hour at the very empty small town DMV. Now you have a more powerful driver license by default than New York State issues. School buses are considered commercial vehicles, but rip out the seats, put a bed, fridge, stove, bathroom and retitle it as a RV, then no longer need a CDL to drive the same bus too, but some states make it easier than others to do a conversion. Some states it's just filing out a form, while others are more picky wanting to inspect it.
- Sabinus 7y ago
  So the rich can afford to buy privacy but it's a luxury for normal people.
LinuxBender 7y ago
In most states you can get a bond, both for personal and business vehicles.

yeezul 7y ago

Not saying it's the case, but could this also be in relation to the dealer and/or insurance companies you've used for quotes?

akira2501 7y ago

> I wish there was some way to opt out of this. In California, there sort of is. First: you can register _two_ addresses with the DMV. One is your "mailing address" and is what is shown on your ID and gets sold with dumps like this, the other is your "residence address" and is a little bit more protected. If someone tries to run your plate number through any civilian system, they're only going to get your "mailing address" and NEVER your "residence address." Second: you can get a "Private Mailbox" service. PMBs are really useful in their own right, but with USPS rules you CANNOT send unsolicited or bulk mail to these addresses. The USPS keeps a database and is very good about filtering these off. So: Get a PMB and use it as your "mailing address." This will keep the marketers one step away from your real information and will prevent large amounts of spam from reaching you. Most PMBs have a "forward when full" or "forward on schedule" service, where they'll empty your box for you and then forward all of that to whatever address you provide them. I've been doing this for 10 years now and it's been fantastic.

dredmorbius 7y ago
Is PMB a USPS or private enterprise service?
- Keverw 7y ago
  Private companies offer PMBs. You have to fill out a form to allow them to handle the mail and get it notarized which is part of the USPS regulations. Some states even allow a PMB to be used for both mailing and residence address for driver licenses and registration, such as South Dakota. You need proof you spent a night at a campground or hotel, along with a receipt for your PMB. So if you sell your house to hit the road full time, your former state might be picky about address so people use a relative address or just change their domicile to a friendly state who recognizes full time RVing. Also kinda interesting South Dakota made it illegal for red light cameras to access the DMV database, and they even revoked access to a city in Iowa on the border. So police officers must phone in all driver license and registration checks instead of being able to use the computer. So no longer automated, but cops will still manually review the footage and write a ticket as a work around. So basically no difference they witnessed it in person or sitting at a computer watching remotely. Just no longer automated process, wouldn't surprise me if for all other states still automatic but it has like a inbox for SD plates to manually review. I guess cities all away across the country are in violation of South Dakota law possibly, but I guess at most they can do is just deny you access to their computers. and if you ended up getting a ticket it's probably still valid no matter what SD law says. I know in Ohio there's been a battle between the state and cities. Dayton for example has illegally kept the cameras on, now the state says they can but all money collected will be subtracted from any money the city gets from the state. Be interesting if Dayton ever captured any South Dakota plates, but not sure if it'd be going too far if a sheriff in a small county decided to expedite the mayor of Dayton, Ohio to stand trial for violating South Dakota data access laws.

Notorious_BLT 7y ago

When I bought a home, I got a wave of homeowner spam mail with "postage-paid" envelopes. I started mailing them their own mail back, torn to shreds, in their prepaid envelope, and eventually it stopped.

Nicholas_C 7y ago

The plus side is that all this spam is helping fund the USPS.

Cougher 7y ago

"I wish there was some way to opt out of this." Agreed, but I would much rather it be opt-in. Privacy should be a default, not an added burden.