4 ms·
Not sure why this is downvoted. I can imagine non-nefarious reasons to collect these lists.
by archi42 4y ago
Not sure why this is downvoted. I can imagine non-nefarious reasons to collect these lists.
- EGreg 4y agoWhy do people downvote stuff that simply triggers them? This is useful info
- hammyhavoc 4y agoBecause it's cruise control for not needing to justify their point of view whilst still pushing their perspective. Sick, right? Votes and e-peen points have to be the worst aspect of HN and Reddit.
- DocTomoe 4y agoIt's spam detection evasion. Also, depending on the legislative framework, it might be illegal: If I give company my email address with a plus and an identifier in it, I give them permission to contact me under that specific email (with the plus on it). If I as a result receive emails under another address (without the plus on it), this might be a GDPR violation.
- OJFord 4y agoI don't see how it's a GDPR violation, but it does turn any contact into spam - the +less address didn't solicit any contact. Not that spam laws are enforced or particularly enforceable.
- neoberg 4y agoIt's a violation because you have to get explicit permission for each and every way of communication. So giving permission to be contacted through a single email address doesn't mean you gave permission for the phone or in this case another email address.
- OJFord 4y agoTrue, though there are marketing comms laws that predate GDPR (at least in the UK) that cover that too - that's what I meant by it being unsolicited spam. In either case, the existence of the different authorised email address is irrelevant.
- archi42 4y agoThe original post never said they were using these lists to send unsolicited emails. It's your assumption they are a spammer; while I said I can imagine non-nefarious reasons to collect these lists. For example: A lot of pentesting companies offer "darknet research" as part of their engagement; these have a non-nefarious use for these leaks, including private addresses: Given a list of customer's employees it's easy to guess some obvious Gmail/GMX/Yahoo/... addresses and check if they might be affected by any leaks (password reuse is pretty popular, especially with the not so technically minded). Troy Hunt, who runs haveibeenpwned, uses these lists as well; I suppose he normalizes Gmail, too. Yes, OP could still be an evil /dudett/..., but while "innocent until proven guilty" might not be a HN rule, it's still something I like to assume about random people in the internet.
- archi42 4y agoHm, just saw: Something ate the "evil dude slash dudette slash ...".