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This sounds like a good step forward for society. However, it’s going to create problems of its own, albeit lesser ones than those it is solving. When I starte

This sounds like a good step forward for society. However, it’s going to create problems of its own, albeit lesser ones than those it is solving. When I started my first company, I made the mistake of putting my real address on all government forms and was immediately inundated with junk mail in volumes I had never seen before. I had no choice but to stop all mail at that address. Ever since then, I’ve used mail forwarding services and filed in Delaware. It provides legitimate protection from a broken mail system. FinCEN claims they are going to put controls in place around how the personal information database can be accessed and used but come on, does anyone actually think that’s going to be effective? I would be excited for this change if it came with meaningful penalties for abuse of my personal information, including junk mail. But then I suppose the post office would start hemorrhaging even more money and advertisers would rally around fighting it.

vlovich123 3y ago
Curious, what’s the mail forwarding service you used and how did that stop the junk mail if it presumably got redirected back to you anyway?
- sholladay 3y ago
  Harvard Business Services has a mail forwarding service that includes junk mail filtering and it works. They even scan the mail and send it via email which means you have access to legitimate mail wherever you are. You can then request the original hard copy to be forwarded if needed. Even if none of the above were true and they blindly forwarded all mail, it would still be helpful because at any time you could stop the mail forwarding without stopping all mail at your real address. So for example, if you got overwhelmed with junk mail from your forwarded address, you could just stop the mail forwarding service and your family would still be able to send you mail directly. It’s similar to Apple’s Hide My Email but for snail mail. When you want to disassociate from an address, you just delete it. Now, of course, as with most things in life, this can be used for good or for evil. Anonymity both causes and solves problems. The question is, is it a human right? I believe it should be, but maybe not if you hold certain positions of power. Defining that is tricky, though. I think most people would trade in their anonymity for fortune or fame, at least until they had experienced it, but not everyone would.
olalonde 3y ago
> albeit lesser ones than those it is solving Very doubtful. Small inconvenience for the oligarchs (is it a crime to be an oligarch by the way?) and drug traffickers, lot of inconvenience for a lot of innocent people. In my opinion, the war on financial privacy has been a net negative for society. A massive cost with little reward. Global AML compliance cost alone is estimated at ~300$ billion/year and that doesn't account for the invisible cost (e.g. billions of unbanked and underbanked people). How much crime does it really stop? [0] https://www.forbes.com/advisor/banking/costs-of-being-unbanked-or-underbanked/ https://www.forbes.com/advisor/banking/costs-of-being-unbank...

vlovich123 3y ago

Curious, what’s the mail forwarding service you used and how did that stop the junk mail if it presumably got redirected back to you anyway?

sholladay 3y ago
Harvard Business Services has a mail forwarding service that includes junk mail filtering and it works. They even scan the mail and send it via email which means you have access to legitimate mail wherever you are. You can then request the original hard copy to be forwarded if needed. Even if none of the above were true and they blindly forwarded all mail, it would still be helpful because at any time you could stop the mail forwarding without stopping all mail at your real address. So for example, if you got overwhelmed with junk mail from your forwarded address, you could just stop the mail forwarding service and your family would still be able to send you mail directly. It’s similar to Apple’s Hide My Email but for snail mail. When you want to disassociate from an address, you just delete it. Now, of course, as with most things in life, this can be used for good or for evil. Anonymity both causes and solves problems. The question is, is it a human right? I believe it should be, but maybe not if you hold certain positions of power. Defining that is tricky, though. I think most people would trade in their anonymity for fortune or fame, at least until they had experienced it, but not everyone would.

olalonde 3y ago

> albeit lesser ones than those it is solving Very doubtful. Small inconvenience for the oligarchs (is it a crime to be an oligarch by the way?) and drug traffickers, lot of inconvenience for a lot of innocent people. In my opinion, the war on financial privacy has been a net negative for society. A massive cost with little reward. Global AML compliance cost alone is estimated at ~300$ billion/year and that doesn't account for the invisible cost (e.g. billions of unbanked and underbanked people). How much crime does it really stop? [0] https://www.forbes.com/advisor/banking/costs-of-being-unbanked-or-underbanked/ https://www.forbes.com/advisor/banking/costs-of-being-unbank...