6 ms·

Three AM 911 call, 9 AM salesman

171 points by wawayanda 2y ago

smelendez 2y ago
This can be a sleazy industry. Servpro is the big corporate side, but the New York Times reported a few years ago about actual criminal intimidation in the industry (https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/03/nyregion/fire-truck-chasers-gangs-nyc.html https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/03/nyregion/fire-truck-chase...)
WaxProlix 2y ago
ServPro is actually one of the less bad ones. BELFOR are even pushier, and take advantage of the fact that building owners and building renters tend to have different priorities in fire cases to gain unlawful access to damaged units. I had Belfor people in my smoke-damaged home without my knowledge constantly, and they made off with a bit of valuable stuff during that unsupervised time. I was renting back then, and of course my say meant nothing to these people. Very scummy industry overall, everyone we interacted with in the wake of that fire left a bad taste in our mouths. ServPro was the original company on the job before Belfor somehow took the contract from em, and they were at least professional and understanding of the awful circumstance people were in.
parliament32 2y ago
Meta but why are there seemingly random full-size images inserted every few paragraphs in the article?
- RandomBacon 2y ago
  Idk, but to me it seemed like a fun expression of the author's feelings.
  - bitwize 2y ago
    Is the sign with the cougar a suggestion on how to treat salesmen? If so, I dig it.
    - RandomBacon 2y ago
      That's my interpretation.
- trevithick 2y ago
  Since you brought up the topic--in the snow picture, is the red vehicle on the right an older 4Runner with some kind of pickup truck cap on it? Something that turns it into a Chevy Avalanche configuration.
- acureau 2y ago
  I used to do freelance writing. We did this as a way to break up large blocks of text, it makes the post more digestible.
- llm_nerd 2y ago
  That was a blogging standard late 90s/early 00s. Loads of pretty unrelated photos -- usually personal photos as everyone is a photographer -- intermixed with content. For some reason I always think of Philip Greenspun when I see that style of content.
dcchuck 2y ago
Thank you for sharing. I particularly enjoyed the call out where you highlight what you learned from the incident. Took the post from fear-brain to information-brain for me (don't mind my curiosity haha). I had a much less intrusive incident but equally "alarming" ;). The apartment I live in has hard wired smoke/carbon monoxide alarms (with backup battery). One night, ~2am 1 of them starts beeping that the battery is dead. I confirm the breaker didn't flip or anything...finally decided to complete disassemble it and get some sleep. 4 of these in the apartment. Head hits the pillow and a second one goes off! Take all 4 down and live dangerously for an evening. In the morning I do my research - turns out these things just start doing that after 10 years. "Get a new one!" it peeps incessantly. Shame me please - as I bought replacements. I'll save this post for myself in 10 years so at least I can be the one to say "I told you so".
- rwky 2y ago
  10 years, you're lucky, one of mine just started doing it after 4 years, it comes with a 5 year guarantee but of course I don't have the receipt and even if I did I don't have the will to fight for a replacement. I think these new alarms are designed to fail early I've never had one fail before but after checking up on different makes and models they all seem to fail randomly.
  - duskwuff 2y ago
    This is by design, and it's for a good reason. The carbon monoxide sensor chemically degrades over time. Good CO detectors will perform self-tests periodically, and will go into an end-of-life mode when those tests fail, or when the sensor's expected lifetime has expired.
    - SoftTalker 2y ago
      I have a plug-in CO detector that's probably 30 years old. Has never given any "end of life" alerts but maybe they didn't have them back then. Guess I should replace it.
      - 2y ago
nancyminusone 2y ago
Things like this are pretty much why I don't answer my front door anymore unless I'm expecting someone. Too many ads.
- ndileas 2y ago
  Is it really that hard to say "Selling something? Not interested, have a nice day!"? I'm fairly anxious and introverted and don't love having to do this, but once a month or something is very manageable. Gotta be brave and interact with the world sometimes.
  - skyyler 2y ago
    >Is it really that hard to say "Selling something? Not interested, have a nice day!"? I shouldn't have to, so I don't, and they eventually do leave. >Gotta be brave and interact with the world sometimes. reply Telling a salesperson "fuck off" doesn't take more bravery than I have, it takes more effort than I am willing to expend on advertising.
  - Waterluvian 2y ago
    I feel like not answering the door is actually the harder thing for some people to do as it can feel like you're being rude or otherwise not doing this thing you feel wired to be doing. I think it's actually a great exercise to do that and experience that there's no consequences to having respect for your own time. I have a no soliciting sign and those who ignore it (basically all of them according to camera events) are 100% in the wrong, are being rude, and do not deserve a wave-off.
  - ziddoap 2y ago
    This has nothing to do with bravery.
    - Diti 2y ago
      For people who have debilitating social anxiety, yes, it does.
827a 2y ago
If my heater goes out, while its below freezing outside, and a salesman offering to fix it shows up at my door two hours later, whether or not its sleezy/ethically wrong is entirely dependent on how much they're charging for their services. I understand the angle that it could be interpreted as exploiting someone in a tough spot, but that's a no-more-valid interpretation than helping someone out of a dire, potentially life-threatening situation; it just comes down to how much they're charging. The angle that they're finding clients by ambulance chasing public 911 records is interesting, but ethically neutral.
- jiveturkey 2y ago
  he wasn't offering to repair the HVAC.
- perpil 2y ago
  Servpro doesn't fix heaters, they mitigate fire damage. They came expecting to fix fire damage, not a heater.
- cowsandmilk 2y ago
  How do you feel about roofers knocking on your door claiming your roof needs to be replaced? That’s a fairly common scenario and one where even legitimate roofers who aren’t lying do it. But most people I know hate it.
amendegree 2y ago
This sorta thing could happen without the API integration, police radio calls happen on the public radio waves, anyone can listen and go to the address too. If the police encrypt their radio, they usually rebroadcast with a delay, in the interest of transparency, so it’s still possible.
segmondy 2y ago
"Through this incident I've learned people should instead contact their home insurance company and get an approved list of vendors to choose from." I don't agree with this. Never contact your insurance company unless you plan on filing a claim, just asking for this list is equivalent to a claim. If you have a valid claim, your insurance can't force you to use a list of vendors. You can choose any vendor you want to. The vendors work/cost must be appropriate.
- larrik 2y ago
  I dunno, if you need one of these companies, it's often better to just let the insurance company send who they want. I wouldn't call pre-emptively though, no.
  - bluGill 2y ago
    These companies often have bad customer service, so that isn't always the answer either.
- bluGill 2y ago
  See your policy - there may be limits on what vendors you are allowed to use. There is typically a large choice, but it isn't everyone. I agree though, don't call unless you are sure you will file a claim. If the item is regular maintenance don't file a claim if you can. That is if you need to replace your roof and discover hail damage you could then claim and get a replacement roof, but your insurance will go up. Insurance is for major issues where you wouldn't expect to pay that price but it might happen (fire..), hail is borderline - a roof that is almost new that needs to be replaced makes the costs (a second time in 5 years...) unreasonable, but if the roof is already 20 years old it should be normal to pay to replace it even if without the hail you might have got 10 more years.
Temporary_31337 2y ago
“ 911 calls are mostly public information since they involve public services who all need to communicate with one another.” Umm not in Europe. First of all Tetra/Dimetra calls are E2E encrypted (with some famous vulnerabilities) then there’s privacy laws etc. It’s surprising that in the US where you have the right to protect your home and privacy even with lethal means, the same measures don’t extend cybernetically.
- yapyap 2y ago
  that’s because those lethal means have been written into the amendments and people have been brainwashed by the NRA to care about those amendments, especially the one to bear arms. This lethal defense thing has been all about pushing more and more guns on people for financial profit, if there was a way to sell internet guns you have to use to shield your privacy, they would, their number 1. focus is money, everything else is number 2.
  - wyager 2y ago
    > This lethal defense thing has been all about pushing more and more guns on people for financial profit The American firearms/ammo/accessories market is only about 1/3rd the size of the American cosmetics market. Americans just really like guns - there's no shadowy profit motive here. There's simply not enough profit on the table for that.
  - unclad5968 2y ago
    Should we stop caring about all the amendments or just the ones you don't like?
- wyager 2y ago
  > It’s surprising that in the US where you have the right to protect your home and privacy even with lethal means, the same measures don’t extend cybernetically. Americans do have a constitutionally protected right to use cryptography. You don't have the right to force someone else to use it.
- chungy 2y ago
plagiarist 2y ago
It is repugnant that this is able to happen at all. To the extent that the government contracts with a third party, the legal requirements should be none of the data is shared without a warrant.
singleshot_ 2y ago
It seems like it would be very, very easy to make these Servpro salespeople unreasonably busy undertaking sales calls that do not have a worthwhile rate of return.
- dmurray 2y ago
  What, by burning down your neighborhood? Making a bunch of emergency calls to attract these guys would be much worse than having slightly predatory sales practices.
- thecosas 2y ago
  It's illegal to make false calls to 911; I know in California it's a misdemeanor at least along with a multi-thousand dollar fine.
  - singleshot_ 2y ago
    A class 1 misd here. Also: dangerous, stupid, and anti-social. But it happens all day long; sometimes people actually get killed; and misuse of public safety emergency responders is a serious vulnerability that very few seem to take seriously.
  - bluGill 2y ago
    If you realize you called 911 by mistake just stay on the line and explain. Operators are understanding of mistakes, they will do some checks to make sure it really was a mistake as opposed to a real thing but you know the attacker is listening and then tell you bye. Don't make mistakes often, if it happens often they will look up the laws and throw fines at your for wasting their time, but for a rare thing it isn't a big deal. If things are borderline and so you are not sure if this is 911 or maybe you can lookup some non-emergency number: just call 911 and explain. They will figure it out - better to call 911 when you didn't need to than call the non-emergency number and not get the help you need. If you don't live in the US you may have some other emergency number. Know what it is. Generally the same rules as above apply.
    - 2y ago
gosub100 2y ago
This reminds me of the recent "service" that somehow front-runs police reports and tries to sell them to car accident victims who are motivated to get their insurance claim going. That said, I don't think the API is to blame here. You could accomplish the same thing by listening to the FD on a scanner and converting the voice to text.
lol768 2y ago
> That's a sleazy business model but it's not illegal I feel bad for folks who live in countries without a GDPR equivalent. The ICO's guidance says "You can rely on legitimate interests for marketing activities if you can show that how you use people’s data is proportionate, has a minimal privacy impact, and people would not be surprised or likely to object" I refuse to believe people would not be surprised or likely to object to this sort of marketing. It's creepy and invasive, and preying on people who may have lost their possessions or the house they've lived in for decades. I would be completely outraged if I received a visit of this nature after making a call to the _emergency services_. That's completely insane! Without being able to rely on legitimate interests, there would not be an opportunity for data to be legally shared and processed in this way. None of the other lawful bases would apply, in my view.
hbrav 2y ago
So if I understand this correctly, this company gets certain information about 911 calls, and then sells it to third parties? I wonder how much information they get, because this could get a lot darker. Imagine if calls to the police reporting domestic violence resulted in advertising material from divorce lawyers. (A domestic violence victim might well want a divorce lawyer, but unsolicited material showing up in their mailbox may put them at risk by enraging their already-violent spouse.)
- lemonberry 2y ago
  "Imagine if calls to the police reporting domestic violence resulted in advertising material from divorce lawyers." While not nearly as cryptic, Target had to adjust their advertising a few years ago because they were accurately predicting women's pregnancies through their analytics. Women received targeted mailings. In many cases probably not problematic, but there's potential for that data to be horribly misused.
  - asalahli 2y ago
    IIRC one of these women was a teenager who hadn't told her parents about her pregnancy
  - digitalPhonix 2y ago
    There is a lot of doubt as to weather that story is real. The story supposedly happened in 2009 when the online Target store was hosted and run by Amazon. Even now Amazon's (or anyone else's) recommendations are not anywhere close to that despite having a decade more experience building recommendations systems. (Yes, Amazon, I want to buy another TV after ordering one yesterday) http://www.kdnuggets.com/2014/05/target-predict-teen-pregnancy-inside-story.html http://www.kdnuggets.com/2014/05/target-predict-teen-pregnan...
- RajT88 2y ago
  I had something like this once. I was in a car crash on a Sat. night and flew to Boston for work the next day. I got weird calls from out of state the following days telling me I had to call the impound lot who had my crashed car and fax a release form. Wondering why I had to do this, I called the impound lot who explained that there was a shady company that would make off with your crashed car if they could talk you into releasing it, which then they could strongarm you into repairs with them or they would get the totaled vehicle if insurance went that way. That has got to be illegal, so I contacted the local PD and they simply did not care. Shady people get rich in businesses where the police do not care. Anything car related seems to be filled with bad behavior.
Someone1234 2y ago
I happened to be seated behind some people on an aircraft who were in the business of doing these sales pitches and discussing it without shame. But in their case, they were targeting people who called the police regarding property crime, and then trying to sell them alarm systems. Nothing they said was illegal, but it felt immoral and like they were taking advantage of people in vulnerable situations. Although I feel like we aren't meant to discuss morality when there is money to be made, if it is capitalism and business, then anything and everything is fair game -- even this.
cowsandmilk 2y ago
I highly doubt Matt Haughey is correct about pulsepoint being the source of this information. The source was almost certainly services that scan the public radio broadcast of emergency communications. As a first correction, pulsepoint isn’t a company. It is a nonprofit. Obviously nonprofits can sell data, but it is clear Haughey didn’t go very deep in his research to get such a basic item wrong.
endre 2y ago
the European mind can not comprehend this high level of capitalism
Wojtkie 2y ago
I recently got my car totaled by a distracted driver. Somehow, within the week, I had 4 different law firms cold-call me and ask if I needed representation. Some were more unscrupulous than others, but I got pretty livid that something or someone shared my information with them. Even worse, after I bought a new vehicle I've received 4+ "extended warranty" junk mail letters that look very official. It comes off as very predatory and leaves a generally bad taste in my mouth with how bad data protections are.
bzip92 2y ago
Something similar happened to me. A piece of cardboard packing material fell in to the furnace when they were installing it, and it just sat on top of the heat exchanger slowly carbonizing until one day it decided to start smoking. The firefighters spotted the source right away with an IR camera and extinguished it with a shot of CO2, then the furnace guy came and got it out.
JohnHaugeland 2y ago
Servpro charged me $35,000 for work they never completed, then did $30,000 of damage to my house, then threatened to sue me Never, ever under any circumstances
andybak 2y ago
> 911 calls are mostly public information since they involve public services who all need to communicate with one another What? No...

171 points by wawayanda 2y ago

This can be a sleazy industry. Servpro is the big corporate side, but the New York Times reported a few years ago about actual criminal intimidation in the industry (https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/03/nyregion/fire-truck-chasers-gangs-nyc.html https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/03/nyregion/fire-truck-chase...)

WaxProlix 2y ago

ServPro is actually one of the less bad ones. BELFOR are even pushier, and take advantage of the fact that building owners and building renters tend to have different priorities in fire cases to gain unlawful access to damaged units. I had Belfor people in my smoke-damaged home without my knowledge constantly, and they made off with a bit of valuable stuff during that unsupervised time. I was renting back then, and of course my say meant nothing to these people. Very scummy industry overall, everyone we interacted with in the wake of that fire left a bad taste in our mouths. ServPro was the original company on the job before Belfor somehow took the contract from em, and they were at least professional and understanding of the awful circumstance people were in.

parliament32 2y ago

Meta but why are there seemingly random full-size images inserted every few paragraphs in the article?

RandomBacon 2y ago
Idk, but to me it seemed like a fun expression of the author's feelings.
- bitwize 2y ago
  Is the sign with the cougar a suggestion on how to treat salesmen? If so, I dig it.
  - RandomBacon 2y ago
    That's my interpretation.
trevithick 2y ago
Since you brought up the topic--in the snow picture, is the red vehicle on the right an older 4Runner with some kind of pickup truck cap on it? Something that turns it into a Chevy Avalanche configuration.
acureau 2y ago
I used to do freelance writing. We did this as a way to break up large blocks of text, it makes the post more digestible.
llm_nerd 2y ago
That was a blogging standard late 90s/early 00s. Loads of pretty unrelated photos -- usually personal photos as everyone is a photographer -- intermixed with content. For some reason I always think of Philip Greenspun when I see that style of content.

dcchuck 2y ago

Thank you for sharing. I particularly enjoyed the call out where you highlight what you learned from the incident. Took the post from fear-brain to information-brain for me (don't mind my curiosity haha). I had a much less intrusive incident but equally "alarming" ;). The apartment I live in has hard wired smoke/carbon monoxide alarms (with backup battery). One night, ~2am 1 of them starts beeping that the battery is dead. I confirm the breaker didn't flip or anything...finally decided to complete disassemble it and get some sleep. 4 of these in the apartment. Head hits the pillow and a second one goes off! Take all 4 down and live dangerously for an evening. In the morning I do my research - turns out these things just start doing that after 10 years. "Get a new one!" it peeps incessantly. Shame me please - as I bought replacements. I'll save this post for myself in 10 years so at least I can be the one to say "I told you so".

rwky 2y ago
10 years, you're lucky, one of mine just started doing it after 4 years, it comes with a 5 year guarantee but of course I don't have the receipt and even if I did I don't have the will to fight for a replacement. I think these new alarms are designed to fail early I've never had one fail before but after checking up on different makes and models they all seem to fail randomly.
- duskwuff 2y ago
  This is by design, and it's for a good reason. The carbon monoxide sensor chemically degrades over time. Good CO detectors will perform self-tests periodically, and will go into an end-of-life mode when those tests fail, or when the sensor's expected lifetime has expired.
  - SoftTalker 2y ago
    I have a plug-in CO detector that's probably 30 years old. Has never given any "end of life" alerts but maybe they didn't have them back then. Guess I should replace it.
    - 2y ago

nancyminusone 2y ago

Things like this are pretty much why I don't answer my front door anymore unless I'm expecting someone. Too many ads.

ndileas 2y ago
Is it really that hard to say "Selling something? Not interested, have a nice day!"? I'm fairly anxious and introverted and don't love having to do this, but once a month or something is very manageable. Gotta be brave and interact with the world sometimes.
- skyyler 2y ago
  >Is it really that hard to say "Selling something? Not interested, have a nice day!"? I shouldn't have to, so I don't, and they eventually do leave. >Gotta be brave and interact with the world sometimes. reply Telling a salesperson "fuck off" doesn't take more bravery than I have, it takes more effort than I am willing to expend on advertising.
- Waterluvian 2y ago
  I feel like not answering the door is actually the harder thing for some people to do as it can feel like you're being rude or otherwise not doing this thing you feel wired to be doing. I think it's actually a great exercise to do that and experience that there's no consequences to having respect for your own time. I have a no soliciting sign and those who ignore it (basically all of them according to camera events) are 100% in the wrong, are being rude, and do not deserve a wave-off.
- ziddoap 2y ago
  This has nothing to do with bravery.
  - Diti 2y ago
    For people who have debilitating social anxiety, yes, it does.

827a 2y ago

If my heater goes out, while its below freezing outside, and a salesman offering to fix it shows up at my door two hours later, whether or not its sleezy/ethically wrong is entirely dependent on how much they're charging for their services. I understand the angle that it could be interpreted as exploiting someone in a tough spot, but that's a no-more-valid interpretation than helping someone out of a dire, potentially life-threatening situation; it just comes down to how much they're charging. The angle that they're finding clients by ambulance chasing public 911 records is interesting, but ethically neutral.

jiveturkey 2y ago
he wasn't offering to repair the HVAC.
perpil 2y ago
Servpro doesn't fix heaters, they mitigate fire damage. They came expecting to fix fire damage, not a heater.
cowsandmilk 2y ago
How do you feel about roofers knocking on your door claiming your roof needs to be replaced? That’s a fairly common scenario and one where even legitimate roofers who aren’t lying do it. But most people I know hate it.

amendegree 2y ago

This sorta thing could happen without the API integration, police radio calls happen on the public radio waves, anyone can listen and go to the address too. If the police encrypt their radio, they usually rebroadcast with a delay, in the interest of transparency, so it’s still possible.

segmondy 2y ago

"Through this incident I've learned people should instead contact their home insurance company and get an approved list of vendors to choose from." I don't agree with this. Never contact your insurance company unless you plan on filing a claim, just asking for this list is equivalent to a claim. If you have a valid claim, your insurance can't force you to use a list of vendors. You can choose any vendor you want to. The vendors work/cost must be appropriate.

larrik 2y ago
I dunno, if you need one of these companies, it's often better to just let the insurance company send who they want. I wouldn't call pre-emptively though, no.
- bluGill 2y ago
  These companies often have bad customer service, so that isn't always the answer either.
bluGill 2y ago
See your policy - there may be limits on what vendors you are allowed to use. There is typically a large choice, but it isn't everyone. I agree though, don't call unless you are sure you will file a claim. If the item is regular maintenance don't file a claim if you can. That is if you need to replace your roof and discover hail damage you could then claim and get a replacement roof, but your insurance will go up. Insurance is for major issues where you wouldn't expect to pay that price but it might happen (fire..), hail is borderline - a roof that is almost new that needs to be replaced makes the costs (a second time in 5 years...) unreasonable, but if the roof is already 20 years old it should be normal to pay to replace it even if without the hail you might have got 10 more years.

Temporary_31337 2y ago

“ 911 calls are mostly public information since they involve public services who all need to communicate with one another.” Umm not in Europe. First of all Tetra/Dimetra calls are E2E encrypted (with some famous vulnerabilities) then there’s privacy laws etc. It’s surprising that in the US where you have the right to protect your home and privacy even with lethal means, the same measures don’t extend cybernetically.

yapyap 2y ago
that’s because those lethal means have been written into the amendments and people have been brainwashed by the NRA to care about those amendments, especially the one to bear arms. This lethal defense thing has been all about pushing more and more guns on people for financial profit, if there was a way to sell internet guns you have to use to shield your privacy, they would, their number 1. focus is money, everything else is number 2.
- wyager 2y ago
  > This lethal defense thing has been all about pushing more and more guns on people for financial profit The American firearms/ammo/accessories market is only about 1/3rd the size of the American cosmetics market. Americans just really like guns - there's no shadowy profit motive here. There's simply not enough profit on the table for that.
- unclad5968 2y ago
  Should we stop caring about all the amendments or just the ones you don't like?
wyager 2y ago
> It’s surprising that in the US where you have the right to protect your home and privacy even with lethal means, the same measures don’t extend cybernetically. Americans do have a constitutionally protected right to use cryptography. You don't have the right to force someone else to use it.
chungy 2y ago

plagiarist 2y ago

It is repugnant that this is able to happen at all. To the extent that the government contracts with a third party, the legal requirements should be none of the data is shared without a warrant.

singleshot_ 2y ago

It seems like it would be very, very easy to make these Servpro salespeople unreasonably busy undertaking sales calls that do not have a worthwhile rate of return.

dmurray 2y ago
What, by burning down your neighborhood? Making a bunch of emergency calls to attract these guys would be much worse than having slightly predatory sales practices.
thecosas 2y ago
It's illegal to make false calls to 911; I know in California it's a misdemeanor at least along with a multi-thousand dollar fine.
- singleshot_ 2y ago
  A class 1 misd here. Also: dangerous, stupid, and anti-social. But it happens all day long; sometimes people actually get killed; and misuse of public safety emergency responders is a serious vulnerability that very few seem to take seriously.
- bluGill 2y ago
  If you realize you called 911 by mistake just stay on the line and explain. Operators are understanding of mistakes, they will do some checks to make sure it really was a mistake as opposed to a real thing but you know the attacker is listening and then tell you bye. Don't make mistakes often, if it happens often they will look up the laws and throw fines at your for wasting their time, but for a rare thing it isn't a big deal. If things are borderline and so you are not sure if this is 911 or maybe you can lookup some non-emergency number: just call 911 and explain. They will figure it out - better to call 911 when you didn't need to than call the non-emergency number and not get the help you need. If you don't live in the US you may have some other emergency number. Know what it is. Generally the same rules as above apply.
  - 2y ago

gosub100 2y ago

This reminds me of the recent "service" that somehow front-runs police reports and tries to sell them to car accident victims who are motivated to get their insurance claim going. That said, I don't think the API is to blame here. You could accomplish the same thing by listening to the FD on a scanner and converting the voice to text.

lol768 2y ago

> That's a sleazy business model but it's not illegal I feel bad for folks who live in countries without a GDPR equivalent. The ICO's guidance says "You can rely on legitimate interests for marketing activities if you can show that how you use people’s data is proportionate, has a minimal privacy impact, and people would not be surprised or likely to object" I refuse to believe people would not be surprised or likely to object to this sort of marketing. It's creepy and invasive, and preying on people who may have lost their possessions or the house they've lived in for decades. I would be completely outraged if I received a visit of this nature after making a call to the _emergency services_. That's completely insane! Without being able to rely on legitimate interests, there would not be an opportunity for data to be legally shared and processed in this way. None of the other lawful bases would apply, in my view.

hbrav 2y ago

So if I understand this correctly, this company gets certain information about 911 calls, and then sells it to third parties? I wonder how much information they get, because this could get a lot darker. Imagine if calls to the police reporting domestic violence resulted in advertising material from divorce lawyers. (A domestic violence victim might well want a divorce lawyer, but unsolicited material showing up in their mailbox may put them at risk by enraging their already-violent spouse.)

lemonberry 2y ago
"Imagine if calls to the police reporting domestic violence resulted in advertising material from divorce lawyers." While not nearly as cryptic, Target had to adjust their advertising a few years ago because they were accurately predicting women's pregnancies through their analytics. Women received targeted mailings. In many cases probably not problematic, but there's potential for that data to be horribly misused.
- asalahli 2y ago
  IIRC one of these women was a teenager who hadn't told her parents about her pregnancy
- digitalPhonix 2y ago
  There is a lot of doubt as to weather that story is real. The story supposedly happened in 2009 when the online Target store was hosted and run by Amazon. Even now Amazon's (or anyone else's) recommendations are not anywhere close to that despite having a decade more experience building recommendations systems. (Yes, Amazon, I want to buy another TV after ordering one yesterday) http://www.kdnuggets.com/2014/05/target-predict-teen-pregnancy-inside-story.html http://www.kdnuggets.com/2014/05/target-predict-teen-pregnan...
RajT88 2y ago
I had something like this once. I was in a car crash on a Sat. night and flew to Boston for work the next day. I got weird calls from out of state the following days telling me I had to call the impound lot who had my crashed car and fax a release form. Wondering why I had to do this, I called the impound lot who explained that there was a shady company that would make off with your crashed car if they could talk you into releasing it, which then they could strongarm you into repairs with them or they would get the totaled vehicle if insurance went that way. That has got to be illegal, so I contacted the local PD and they simply did not care. Shady people get rich in businesses where the police do not care. Anything car related seems to be filled with bad behavior.

Someone1234 2y ago

I happened to be seated behind some people on an aircraft who were in the business of doing these sales pitches and discussing it without shame. But in their case, they were targeting people who called the police regarding property crime, and then trying to sell them alarm systems. Nothing they said was illegal, but it felt immoral and like they were taking advantage of people in vulnerable situations. Although I feel like we aren't meant to discuss morality when there is money to be made, if it is capitalism and business, then anything and everything is fair game -- even this.

cowsandmilk 2y ago

I highly doubt Matt Haughey is correct about pulsepoint being the source of this information. The source was almost certainly services that scan the public radio broadcast of emergency communications. As a first correction, pulsepoint isn’t a company. It is a nonprofit. Obviously nonprofits can sell data, but it is clear Haughey didn’t go very deep in his research to get such a basic item wrong.

endre 2y ago

the European mind can not comprehend this high level of capitalism

Wojtkie 2y ago

I recently got my car totaled by a distracted driver. Somehow, within the week, I had 4 different law firms cold-call me and ask if I needed representation. Some were more unscrupulous than others, but I got pretty livid that something or someone shared my information with them. Even worse, after I bought a new vehicle I've received 4+ "extended warranty" junk mail letters that look very official. It comes off as very predatory and leaves a generally bad taste in my mouth with how bad data protections are.

bzip92 2y ago

Something similar happened to me. A piece of cardboard packing material fell in to the furnace when they were installing it, and it just sat on top of the heat exchanger slowly carbonizing until one day it decided to start smoking. The firefighters spotted the source right away with an IR camera and extinguished it with a shot of CO2, then the furnace guy came and got it out.

JohnHaugeland 2y ago

Servpro charged me $35,000 for work they never completed, then did $30,000 of damage to my house, then threatened to sue me Never, ever under any circumstances

andybak 2y ago

> 911 calls are mostly public information since they involve public services who all need to communicate with one another What? No...