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Think around the edges: you could opt out of phone books because some people really needed the ability to do that, and that was in the era before bulk operation
by acdha 2y ago
Think around the edges: you could opt out of phone books because some people really needed the ability to do that, and that was in the era before bulk operations were easy. Someone targeted, yes, you could look them up and even get phone books from other areas, but the kind of data-mining and cross referencing which are now trivial were cost-prohibitive.
- bastawhiz 2y agoAt least in the US, property ownership has been public record. You can look up who owns any parcel of land. You can't opt out of your address being public. It's just somewhat easier to search this data in today's era.
- skybrian 2y agoThere are apparently ways to opt out of that too, with a land trust or shell corporation.
- acdha 2y agoNot everyone owns a house, and people with privacy concerns have for a long time used companies or trusts to hold property or to simplify family ownership (my next-door neighbors are nowhere near rich but used a family trust to simplify inheritance when the owner started getting old).