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I always wonder how this sort of data ends up escaping into the wild en-masse. Everytime I've come up against wanting public records they're not public by way o

I always wonder how this sort of data ends up escaping into the wild en-masse. Everytime I've come up against wanting public records they're not public by way of API public. They're always public with no easy way to get at them yourself en-masse, and no one is willing to write any code to get at them en-masse. Seems like the big players have cornered it Court records for instance

cratermoon 3y ago
“But the plans were on display…” “On display? I eventually had to go down to the cellar to find them.” “That’s the display department.” “With a flashlight.” “Ah, well, the lights had probably gone.” “So had the stairs.” “But look, you found the notice, didn’t you?” “Yes,” said Arthur, “yes I did. It was on display in the bottom of a locked filing cabinet stuck in a disused lavatory with a sign on the door saying ‘Beware of the Leopard.”
ProllyInfamous 3y ago
>Court records for instance I use neither email (for years now, a blessing!) nor have my own phone number (VOIP outbound, only). Anything requiring either gets a burner.email or my numeric pager. A recent civil court action requested both of these obsolete (to me) technologies, and the judge's clerk required that I sign an attestation upon leaving them unanswerable. Court records are public in my jurisdiction, and I choose to be "unreachable." ---- Regarding the linked-to article, a harrowing read (certainly)! US citizens are allowed, by law, to request a FREE COPY of everything LexusNexis has on them in their private consumer file.
- cj 3y ago
  Re: lexusnexus, i wish they provided their data in a more legible format. Last time i requested my data it was provided in such a way where the data needed to be cross referenced with a legend which itself needed to be cross referenced with yet another table which made the whole data dump unreadable.
  - ProllyInfamous 3y ago
    I used an online request option, in 2018, which required LexisNexus to send me my "entire profile" — which resulted in a 150+ page document physically arriving in my mailbox.
    - cobertos 3y ago
      Interesting, you've inspired me to request my own. I'm excited to see what comes in the mail!
  - staticautomatic 3y ago
    As someone who used to broker Lexis data, lemme tell you, you don’t want what comes out of their API either.
- codazoda 3y ago
  I’d love to read more about your contact system if you’ve written about it or care to. I’m mostly unavailable on the phone except to people who are in my contact list (do not disturb mode) but I wouldn’t mind considering how to take it a step farther.
  - ProllyInfamous 3y ago
    The basics are this: I have a numeric (ONLY #'s allowed) pager — pagersdirect . net (coverage available nationally, paid for each metro area you will use pager). I have no affiliation with PDnet, other than as a customer. If you wish to reach me, you text me your phone number (or a "code" if we have arranged such)... I then call back from an unregistered VOIP calling service (no phone number, so cannot receive calls). ---- As for not using email, this was simple: just stop using it! Paul Graham has a great lectures (decades old, now!) wherein he complains that "email is just a to-do list, which other people can place tasks onto." Incredible how we haven't implemented a solution for this yet (e.g. now-depricated hashcash authentication).

cratermoon 3y ago

“But the plans were on display…” “On display? I eventually had to go down to the cellar to find them.” “That’s the display department.” “With a flashlight.” “Ah, well, the lights had probably gone.” “So had the stairs.” “But look, you found the notice, didn’t you?” “Yes,” said Arthur, “yes I did. It was on display in the bottom of a locked filing cabinet stuck in a disused lavatory with a sign on the door saying ‘Beware of the Leopard.”

ProllyInfamous 3y ago

>Court records for instance I use neither email (for years now, a blessing!) nor have my own phone number (VOIP outbound, only). Anything requiring either gets a burner.email or my numeric pager. A recent civil court action requested both of these obsolete (to me) technologies, and the judge's clerk required that I sign an attestation upon leaving them unanswerable. Court records are public in my jurisdiction, and I choose to be "unreachable." ---- Regarding the linked-to article, a harrowing read (certainly)! US citizens are allowed, by law, to request a FREE COPY of everything LexusNexis has on them in their private consumer file.

cj 3y ago
Re: lexusnexus, i wish they provided their data in a more legible format. Last time i requested my data it was provided in such a way where the data needed to be cross referenced with a legend which itself needed to be cross referenced with yet another table which made the whole data dump unreadable.
- ProllyInfamous 3y ago
  I used an online request option, in 2018, which required LexisNexus to send me my "entire profile" — which resulted in a 150+ page document physically arriving in my mailbox.
  - cobertos 3y ago
    Interesting, you've inspired me to request my own. I'm excited to see what comes in the mail!
- staticautomatic 3y ago
  As someone who used to broker Lexis data, lemme tell you, you don’t want what comes out of their API either.
codazoda 3y ago
I’d love to read more about your contact system if you’ve written about it or care to. I’m mostly unavailable on the phone except to people who are in my contact list (do not disturb mode) but I wouldn’t mind considering how to take it a step farther.
- ProllyInfamous 3y ago
  The basics are this: I have a numeric (ONLY #'s allowed) pager — pagersdirect . net (coverage available nationally, paid for each metro area you will use pager). I have no affiliation with PDnet, other than as a customer. If you wish to reach me, you text me your phone number (or a "code" if we have arranged such)... I then call back from an unregistered VOIP calling service (no phone number, so cannot receive calls). ---- As for not using email, this was simple: just stop using it! Paul Graham has a great lectures (decades old, now!) wherein he complains that "email is just a to-do list, which other people can place tasks onto." Incredible how we haven't implemented a solution for this yet (e.g. now-depricated hashcash authentication).