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I don't understand why you reacted so strongly. I feel like it's not a big deal to receive a message like that; what am I missing?

by ajkjk 5y ago

annoyingnoob 5y ago
Have you ever been a sole proprietor in California[0]? Do you have a family? Adding something about a timeframe and quoting the law clearly signals legal troubles. I would have 'reacted strongly' too. [0] https://www.ftb.ca.gov/file/business/types/sole-proprietorship.html https://www.ftb.ca.gov/file/business/types/sole-proprietorsh...
nkrisc 5y ago
Because it sounds like a letter you’d receive from someone who’s prepared to abuse the legal system to extract money from you. Also I think the OP pretty well described their reaction: they were afraid they were going to be sued.
kstrauser 5y ago
I'm just running a hobby website. I'm not at all used to receiving letters that bring up legal questions, then give me a time frame to reply as per a specific law. To my non-lawyer reading, that looks like someone's doing their homework to figure out how to drag me into court. Judging from a lot of the responses I've gotten from other recipients, I'm far from the only one.
- N00bN00b 5y ago
  I don't know buddy... Might be worth it to invest some time into anxiety/stress management. Meditation, keep an eye on your sleep, exercise, maybe go talk to someone. You're not supposed to have anxiety attacks over fairly lame sounding emails. Not to mention, it's just a matter of time before you get another (spam/scam) email like this. I get these quite frequently? I don't know how often, but definitely at least one a month. Either it's about my taxes not filed or my student debt, or some loan I didn't pay. Not worth having anxiety attacks over, minor or otherwise.
  - wglb 5y ago
    For those who revive what appears to be a legal threat seems to be worthy of anxiety
  - wtallis 5y ago
    Obvious scams are a lot easier to dismiss without worry than ones that actually look like potentially credible legal threats. You're just blaming the victim here, possibly because you're biased by the hindsight of already knowing the legal threat was never real in the first place.
  - dang 5y ago
    Please don't cross into personal attack in HN comments. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
ineedasername 5y ago
Because receiving a letter citing chapter & verse of the legal code is generally never the precursor to a nice friendly chat. The actual-not-fake-researcher (instead of fictional people) could have sent a nice friendly request saying, "I'm a PhD candidate working on public policy in the tech sector. Could you please answer the following questions regarding your process of CCPA compliance, if applicable"
- ajkjk 5y ago
  Sure, of course not, but a near panic attack still seems a bit... out of proportion.
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]
  - ineedasername 5y ago
    If you have run a business small enough that you don't have a lawyer on standby then you might understand a little better. I have, and received a real legal threat. A bit of panic as you contemplate the financial devastation & wreckage it might leave your life in... well, a little bit of panic is actually a pretty reasonable response there. If you've been in that situation and been totally calm about it then that's a good thing for you, but that's not the common response for someone contemplating a life-changing encounter with the legal system.
    - Ekaros 5y ago
      These businesses should have been aware of this already. It is their own fault for not being aware of their status and preparing for it. In no way anyone but they are to blame in this case.
      - kstrauser 5y ago
        I think you didn’t read my original blog post that’s linked here. I’m not a business. They send the email to me regarding my personal, hobby, zero-revenue website. I have no legal obligations under the CCPA, but I didn’t know that until I spent a few stressed-out hours researching this. Even then I was worried about the idea of being sued over it anyway, and having to explain to a court why I believed I shouldn’t be liable for damages.
endisneigh 5y ago
I see that you're being downvoted, but for what it's worth I agree with you. I read the message and if I received it I wouldn't have thought much of it. Honestly I would've just thought it was spam. It's a shame though if the OP did have mental duress as a result of it, though.
- earleybird 5y ago
  It's entirely possible that you and OP do not share the same 'what do I stand to lose' frame of reference.
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]

I don't understand why you reacted so strongly. I feel like it's not a big deal to receive a message like that; what am I missing?

by ajkjk 5y ago

I don't understand why you reacted so strongly. I feel like it's not a big deal to receive a message like that; what am I missing?

annoyingnoob 5y ago

Have you ever been a sole proprietor in California[0]? Do you have a family? Adding something about a timeframe and quoting the law clearly signals legal troubles. I would have 'reacted strongly' too. [0] https://www.ftb.ca.gov/file/business/types/sole-proprietorship.html https://www.ftb.ca.gov/file/business/types/sole-proprietorsh...

nkrisc 5y ago

Because it sounds like a letter you’d receive from someone who’s prepared to abuse the legal system to extract money from you. Also I think the OP pretty well described their reaction: they were afraid they were going to be sued.

kstrauser 5y ago

I'm just running a hobby website. I'm not at all used to receiving letters that bring up legal questions, then give me a time frame to reply as per a specific law. To my non-lawyer reading, that looks like someone's doing their homework to figure out how to drag me into court. Judging from a lot of the responses I've gotten from other recipients, I'm far from the only one.

N00bN00b 5y ago
I don't know buddy... Might be worth it to invest some time into anxiety/stress management. Meditation, keep an eye on your sleep, exercise, maybe go talk to someone. You're not supposed to have anxiety attacks over fairly lame sounding emails. Not to mention, it's just a matter of time before you get another (spam/scam) email like this. I get these quite frequently? I don't know how often, but definitely at least one a month. Either it's about my taxes not filed or my student debt, or some loan I didn't pay. Not worth having anxiety attacks over, minor or otherwise.
- wglb 5y ago
  For those who revive what appears to be a legal threat seems to be worthy of anxiety
- wtallis 5y ago
  Obvious scams are a lot easier to dismiss without worry than ones that actually look like potentially credible legal threats. You're just blaming the victim here, possibly because you're biased by the hindsight of already knowing the legal threat was never real in the first place.
- dang 5y ago
  Please don't cross into personal attack in HN comments. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

ineedasername 5y ago

Because receiving a letter citing chapter & verse of the legal code is generally never the precursor to a nice friendly chat. The actual-not-fake-researcher (instead of fictional people) could have sent a nice friendly request saying, "I'm a PhD candidate working on public policy in the tech sector. Could you please answer the following questions regarding your process of CCPA compliance, if applicable"

ajkjk 5y ago
Sure, of course not, but a near panic attack still seems a bit... out of proportion.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
- ineedasername 5y ago
  If you have run a business small enough that you don't have a lawyer on standby then you might understand a little better. I have, and received a real legal threat. A bit of panic as you contemplate the financial devastation & wreckage it might leave your life in... well, a little bit of panic is actually a pretty reasonable response there. If you've been in that situation and been totally calm about it then that's a good thing for you, but that's not the common response for someone contemplating a life-changing encounter with the legal system.
  - Ekaros 5y ago
    These businesses should have been aware of this already. It is their own fault for not being aware of their status and preparing for it. In no way anyone but they are to blame in this case.
    - kstrauser 5y ago
      I think you didn’t read my original blog post that’s linked here. I’m not a business. They send the email to me regarding my personal, hobby, zero-revenue website. I have no legal obligations under the CCPA, but I didn’t know that until I spent a few stressed-out hours researching this. Even then I was worried about the idea of being sued over it anyway, and having to explain to a court why I believed I shouldn’t be liable for damages.

endisneigh 5y ago

I see that you're being downvoted, but for what it's worth I agree with you. I read the message and if I received it I wouldn't have thought much of it. Honestly I would've just thought it was spam. It's a shame though if the OP did have mental duress as a result of it, though.

earleybird 5y ago
It's entirely possible that you and OP do not share the same 'what do I stand to lose' frame of reference.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]