4 ms·

I accidentally discovered a way to get hold of passport details of random people by applying for Visa on arrival to Vietnam. There are these online portals whic

I accidentally discovered a way to get hold of passport details of random people by applying for Visa on arrival to Vietnam. There are these online portals which do some document pre processing which is legit. And on landing in Vietnam we are expected to show that we have already applied for Visa. It so happens that these portals do batch processing. Which means my application is processed along with a half a dozen or so other random applicants. And so I applied for one. And when I received the confirmation document I received the entire batch file. It included passport number, expiry date and other PII of ten random people which would be super valuable in the hands of criminals and such. And conversely ten random people know my PII

hdi8534 6y ago
The same when you apply to give up vietnamese citizenship, all your info are public on the goverment website (pdf files with name, birthday, current addresss...)
- rntksi 6y ago
  with the way how the government over there works, even if you have those information... there's really nothing much to do with it.
  - mannykannot 6y ago
    If you are applying to give up Vietnamese citizenship, I would guess that you are no longer living in Viet Nam, so this information might serve as a starter kit for someone to steal your identity?
city41 6y ago
I recently bought a used phone on ebay. When I turned it on it had the previous owner's data in tact and no passcode. I opened Gmail and was in their account. I immediately factory reset the phone. My point being sensitive data leaks all over the place in many ways in today's world.
jwong_ 6y ago
Foreign visitors to China staying in non-hotels are required to register at the local police station. The police in the city I visit use their personal cellphones to take pictures of your passport, use their personal WeChat accounts to send them who-knows-where, and then store them in paper form on the top of their desks. Anyone who walks in to register can see what kinds of foreigners are staying, where they're staying, their jobs, passport numbers, etc.

hdi8534 6y ago

The same when you apply to give up vietnamese citizenship, all your info are public on the goverment website (pdf files with name, birthday, current addresss...)

rntksi 6y ago
with the way how the government over there works, even if you have those information... there's really nothing much to do with it.
- mannykannot 6y ago
  If you are applying to give up Vietnamese citizenship, I would guess that you are no longer living in Viet Nam, so this information might serve as a starter kit for someone to steal your identity?

city41 6y ago

I recently bought a used phone on ebay. When I turned it on it had the previous owner's data in tact and no passcode. I opened Gmail and was in their account. I immediately factory reset the phone. My point being sensitive data leaks all over the place in many ways in today's world.

jwong_ 6y ago

Foreign visitors to China staying in non-hotels are required to register at the local police station. The police in the city I visit use their personal cellphones to take pictures of your passport, use their personal WeChat accounts to send them who-knows-where, and then store them in paper form on the top of their desks. Anyone who walks in to register can see what kinds of foreigners are staying, where they're staying, their jobs, passport numbers, etc.