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The other Sean Byrne doesn't exist
- areoform 2mo agoSomething like this happened to me and it has cost me $20k+ over time, https://areoform.wordpress.com/2021/08/06/on-apples-expanded-protections-for-children/ https://areoform.wordpress.com/2021/08/06/on-apples-expanded... Mercury unblocked my accounts because their founder is a very kind man who bothered to verify what the document actually says rather than falling back to, "Computer says no." But everywhere else? De nada. Computer says no. And it's not even me. It's a fuzzy match with someone in their 50s. Doesn't matter. Computer says no. And I can't "get off the list" because it's not me who's on the list. The computer will always say no. In the long run, I'll be fine. I think. But I'll pay $100k+ by the time it's over. These systems are being steadily expanded, as the dumbest incarnations of themselves. We've gone from Thin Thread https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ThinThread https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ThinThread to crappy fuzzy matches on shoddy data executed on with 0 diligence. It's the stupidest possible timeline. I think many, many other people will be sharing our fate soon, which is partly why I've been writing about this slow rolling train wreck in motion in bits and pieces.
- mock-possum 2mo agoHow can you possibly afford to pay $100k for something like this? That’s so much money!
- psd1 2mo ago"The evil, I can tolerate; but the stupidity..." -Hubert Farnsworth
- dredmorbius 2mo agoSee also Bonhöffer.
- praptak 2mo agoTerrorism went from "kill one person to scare millions" to "stir shit up to cripple the adversary with the costs of prevention".
- somat 2mo agoThat is the fundamental of guerrilla warfare. The guerrillas can't win but can loose with very little cost while the cost for the established side to "Win" is an order of magnitude more.
- TalkingCodeMonk 2mo agoAfter 9/11 (and long before), the majority of historians and academia warned that the political response to terrorism — the destruction of civil liberties, implementation of mass surveillance, Islamophobia, populism — were a greater threat and risk to our freedoms than the terrorists ever were. I remember, after the Snowden leaks, when anyone warned that governments could use the patriot act and the various other "intelligence" power grabs to destroy democracy and implement totalitarian dictatorship, they would be deemed insane conspiracy theorists. The hilarious part is most of them (including me) were warning about a distant future... yet it barely took a decade for America to collapse into fascist populism, declare ANTI-FAscists the real terrorists, and turn the surveillance apparatus against them.
- andai 2mo ago"Encourage your adversary to do more of the thing they've been pushing for half a century."
- Henchman21 2mo ago“When your enemy makes mistakes, don’t stop them.”
- Cider9986 2mo ago>It started rather innocuously. Someone couldn’t send me money. You need a Monero. It's the only damn cryptocurrency that's used. https://getmonero.org https://getmonero.org
- darkhorn 2mo agoMay be you need to change your name to something unique like Ackfknetce. That will be cheaper.
- layer8 2mo agoUntil Trump tweets it by mistake.
- Henchman21 2mo agoAt least at that point you’re familiar with the name change process
- zhivota 2mo agoHonestly the best thing to do might be to change your name at this point. I'm glad my name is not common, this kind of issue is going to only get worse in the future.
- deleted 2mo ago[deleted]
- kmoser 2mo agoThat is trading one problem for another: when the name on your birth certificate doesn't match the name on your government issued ID, certain other government entities tend to deny you services.
- gucci-on-fleek 2mo agoI would think that changing the last name only should be fine though, since up until somewhat recently, most women changed their last names when they got married, so most systems should be equipped to handle this.
- nephihaha 2mo agoIt used to be very common for migrants to change their surnames, although less so now. There used to be a person who wrote about Scottish Lithuanians called John Millar, who was born as Jonas Stepšys. Noam Chomsky had said that his family's surname was substantially altered after they went to the USA.
- a57721 2mo agoAnd older example: Warner brothers were born as Wonsal (or Wonskolaser), and they changed their names too (Hirsz became Harry, Aaron became Albert).
- nephihaha 2mo agoThere are tonnes of them. Especially Eastern Europeans and Jews. Italians sometimes too. Still happens in entertainment, since Steve Carell and Nicholas Cage's real names are more Italian sounding.
- kazinator 2mo agoYou can't seriously match people on first and last name and claim "fully matched". Think of how manny John Smiths there are? How can this be the company started by Wozniak and Jobs ...
- cbsmith 2mo agoAs a guy named Chris Smith, I can tell you, people do absolutely "match people on first and last name", and it causes me no end of trouble.
- nephihaha 2mo agoThey do unfortunately. I know someone with a more unusual surname who was getting chased for the debt of someone with the same name. It happens.
- deleted 2mo ago[deleted]
- projektfu 2mo agoI failed a background check once because they even ignore middle name/initial. The record in the system had a different MI and I provided mine. Also, birthdate, location, race, etc., were all mismatched. Thankfully, in that case, I was able to provide documentation that I was not a match, but it is incredibly frustrating to have false positives and no "this is positive but it is obviously a partially incorrect match. In the OP's hypothetical about a pre-screening background check, you might never get the opportunity to clear your name.
- qingcharles 2mo agoAnd most systems and forms in the USA only provide for one middle initial, which makes things tricky for those coming from other cultures.
- p-e-w 2mo agoYou’re presenting this like a mistake born out of incompetence. It isn’t. The institutions involved simply don’t care whether they are destroying the lives of random people. At all. And why should they? They are completely unaccountable in practice, sometimes even in theory.
- bryanrasmussen 2mo ago>The Robert Johnson they kept being confused with wasn’t a man named Robert Johnson. It was a known alias of someone convicted of plotting to bomb a Hindu temple and a cinema in Toronto Also, sold his soul to the devil at a crossroads, so you gotta be careful.
- morganf 2mo agoHahahahahaha I appreciate the humor and musical knowledge And I'm surprised that your joke didn't get more laughs or comments on HN. There is life outside of screens ;)
- tclancy 2mo agoFellow traveler, my takeaway was that the author didn’t address the elephant in the room, which is that his name is within Soundex/ Levenshtein distance of “Sean Bean” who played a terrorist in Patriot Games, so I chalk this up as another win for our government’s incredibly well-designed security state keeping me safe from imaginary threats. Good reading for today: https://www.theguardian.com/books/ng-interactive/2026/aug/15/art-spiegelman-the-us-needs-a-counter-revolution https://www.theguardian.com/books/ng-interactive/2026/aug/15...
- bryanrasmussen 2mo ago>“Sean Bean” who played a terrorist in Patriot Games did he die, or call anyone a "bastard!"
- deleted 2mo ago[deleted]
- Simon_ORourke 2mo agoSeems fair - https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/firm-in-alleged-iran-trade-deal-to-pay-cab-1.5m/a/147788489.html https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/firm-in-alleged-iran-t...
- deeplytroubled 2mo ago[dead]
- Aozora7 2mo agoThis is one of the obvious consequences of not having a national identity number assigned to everyone at birth, which exist in most developed countries, except for anglosphere, for some reason.
- reaperducer 2mo agofor some reason. The reason is there. It's no big secret. Pick up a history book.
- Extropy_ 2mo agoCare to be a little less vague? Maybe a little more helpful?
- rendall 2mo agoA government may have entirely benign reasons for creating a comprehensive population database, but you cannot guarantee who will control that database later. You have to trust the people who control it, not only now, but at all times in the future, but history does not support that. Nazi Germany and occupied forces used census data, municipal population registers, etc., to identify and track down targeted people. The United States, during World War II, used census information to assist in the removal and incarceration of citizens with Japanese, Italian, and German heritage. The Rwanda population database explicitly classified people as Hutu, Tutsi, or Twa. This became the mechanism to target Tutsi during the Rwandan genocide. In China today, these databases are used to surveil and imprison Uyghurs. Those are examples of official policy turned to dark purposes. It did not even include malfeasance for malfeasance or criminality by individuals or cartels who somehow gain access.
- toasty228 2mo agoUh? The reason is that the constitution doesn't explicitly allow the federal gov to do it, so it's a state power. It's not like you care about all the thing you enumerated, they literally ask you for your "race" when getting a driver's license, which is the defacto ID document anyways. You're installing flock cameras everywhere and gargling palantir's balls while they implement the surveillance state.
- bitlad 2mo agoBackground check softwares do this too. Some of the low cost options now a days do not have human in the loop. They often miss obvious red flags or do too much false positives.
- frereubu 2mo agoThis has been going on for a long time. In the early 2000s I knew someone with the relatively common name Ian Smith who was routinely held up in airports because someone else with that name was on a watch list. I think in the end he managed to get some kind of stamp in his passport that officially said "not that Ian Smith", and it seems mad this isn't easier to resolve these days.
- darkhorn 2mo agoIt looks like it will be a good idea to name a baby after those databases are checked so that he/she is less likely have a problem in the future.
- flurdy 2mo agoNow we know why Elon named his kid 'X Æ A-Xii'. UUID names next? v7 so we get the age...
- Henchman21 2mo agoHe named his children gibberish because he has a ketamine problem and is trying extra hard to “be cool”
- qingcharles 2mo agoHaving a single-letter first name is also a road to dystopian aggravation. I knew someone with a single-letter name and good luck flying anywhere -- most ticket sales systems won't allow it because the devs didn't read those Falsehoods guides. So you expand the name, e.g. T -> Tee so you can buy the ticket, but when you get to the gate your ticket doesn't match your ID and now you're being escorted out of the building.
- snickerer 2mo agoOh, the classic Tuttle <-> Buttle name confusion! I always remember the movie Brazil when I have to interact with a stupid cybernetic apparatus like every big company, where simple programs are the brain and low-paid humans are the actuators.
- dcminter 2mo agoBrazil is one of the scariest films I've ever seen.
- rohan_tech24 2mo ago[dead]
- stevoski 2mo agoI once met an Irish person who was detained at Beirut Airport when (trying to) leave the country, and who then disappeared into the Lebanese prison system. Really, he just disappeared. Luckily he was allowed to make a call just after being detained, to his friend who worked for the British Council in Beirut. The friend was tirelessly in searching for him and seeking his release. It wasn’t easy. (I met him just after his release, while he was building the courage to try again to leave the country.) Why was he detained? Because his common Irish first name and common Irish surname matched someone on an Interpol list.
- darkhorn 2mo agoLet me guess, he was living in his home address and he was employed. He had no visits by police but when he tried to leave the country no one was bothered who he really was but they were bothered that a not so much friendly UI message has appeared on the screen.
- martinclayton 2mo agoOne option might be for the real Sean Byrne to move to the address in Sligo of the fictitious one, then ask to be removed from the Entity List on the grounds that he is a real person. I think that wouldn't work, and could be life-changing in a bad way, but it's an idea.
- ricardobeat 2mo agoAh, yes, irreversibly linking himself to the same address and adding an impersonation criminal charge will improve his situation a lot!
- layer8 2mo agoIt might result in his address and birth date being added to the entry on the Entity List, now that the authorities have gained knowledge of that additional information. ;)
- soneil 2mo agoSligo's not _that_ bad.
- Cider9986 2mo agoThe App Store as the only way to install apps is the worst part about iOS and why I'll never use it again. I'm always helping friends with piracy and I have to tell them they can't conveniently use a native app because it isn't listed on the App Store. And then there's the removal of ICE apps. It's too much control. On iOS, if the government banned Signal, Apple could enforce it. On GrapheneOS, you can use whatever app from anywhere no matter what.
- rzwitserloot 2mo agoIf a government entity would work like this, all heck would break loose. Trying to contrast this to the EU's attempts to force only gatekeepers (those companies so large that there is no alternative to dealing with them) to open up systems, even at the cost of damaging e.g. apple's valiant and welcome attempts to protect the privacy of its customers, highlights to me that the EU is completely correct in doing so.
- gwerbin 2mo agoGovernment entities in the USA already work like this. That's how all this came about.
- derbOac 2mo agoYes, the posted story has so many layers of wrongness in it — it's hard to pick just one. None of it would be a problem without the App store in its current form though.
- veeti 2mo agoOnce Android developer verification rolls out globally, Alphabet Inc. in Mountain View and the US sanctions and export controls list will become the sole arbitrer of accepted software publishers. Only minority platforms like GrapheneOS, Mac OS X, Win32, Linux remain as free general computing operating systems.
- rohan_tech24 2mo ago[dead]
- rohan_tech24 2mo ago[dead]
- pranav_tech26 2mo ago[flagged]
- dcminter 2mo agoI got temporarily banned from the Sun Java Forums years and years ago because of something like this. I tried creating a few test accounts and it seemed to be the first name, not even the full name, that was the "match" ! I assume someone on the list had an alias of just "Dave" or "David" and whoever implemented the filter had just done the easiest thing possible. Not really a life-altering inconvenience, and the other forum members got sufficiently uppity that they re-reviewed it and let me back in, but it was a good lesson in how big orgs have no innate common sense.
- saejox 2mo agoNot exactly the same still i would like to share my horror story. Google decided to ban my many years old account. Reason: account created by computer program. Likely flagged me because i use multiple computer and connect from other wifi. Whats worse is i am a monetized youtube partner with million+ views. Youtube support (@TeamYoutube) just say "it is a google problem" All appeals are handled by bots, there is no way to reach an actual human being. We are being controlled by our ai overlords. Some bot on some cpu can ruin your life on a whim.
- tialaramex 2mo agoThe recurring recipe for Jill Bearup has been after exhausting all the "appeal" and "support" processes which are hopeless and either can't or won't help, to ask for the underlying data so that you can understand their decision. In the EU [and because it was once a member of the EU when this rule was enacted, the UK] you're legally entitled to that data because you are its subject. So far, getting the data hasn't happened once AFAIK but magically she's unbanned/ unblocked/ whatever.
- bambax 2mo agoThe reason Apple or Google or Microsoft don't care one way or the other is their directors rarely if ever suffer from their policies. We should try to make them. The way to retaliate against those stupid lists and the stupid way they are enforced by US companies could be to register a fake company with principals named Tim Cook, Satya Nadella, Donald Trump, etc. (and many other people with less well-known names, but high up in various organizations) and somehow get that company and all its employees' names on a sanctions list? Not sure what it would take to work, but it would probably be fun.
- shelled 2mo agoThis scares me! Denial of service (in some cases you may not even have an alternative), in some cases custody, et cetera and that too based on a false positive or a flimsy match. And no one doubles checks it, no one bothers to make sure, and they are allowed to do that! All this is actual legal and no one pays for it once it's found out, and even if you have suffered. None. And heaven's forbid if your actual ID and references (i.e you) have ended up in such places (or such list/s) by mistake or malice.
- gwerbin 2mo agoAlso because there's no real due process associated with these various lists, they can be used to punish political enemies.
- ButlerianJihad 2mo agoI found some very intriguing/disturbing things while I was paying for full access on Ancestry.com. Those genealogy sites have powerful searches over a lot of public-records databases if you pay them enough. So naturally, I investigated myself. One of the biggest mind-benders was finding a person with a string of addresses going back 25+ years. Now I've lived in this area for 27, and for some reason, this person's addresses all coincided with mine. They had lived near every residence I ever had; they lived within a stone's throw of every clinic, every church, my college, every place I had a relationship with. One such person's "last known address" was an exact match for my previous address: apartment number and all. I found a profile on Facebook but it is unknown if these are real persons, or fictitious entities in the public record for some purpose. Then, I found a person who seems to be real (has a Facebook profile with photo, lists a real place of employment, etc.) She shared my exact surname and had a given name that matches my ethnicity. She lived at the same street address for a long time, albeit a different apartment number. I was receiving mail for her. At some point, this phantom wife/sister was conflated with me in the public record. Obviously someone got her unit number wrong if I got her mail. But my phone number was eventually listed as hers. She has found herself in debt, and is sometimes referred to a collection agency. I've gotten no less than 3 separate inquiries for delinquent debts, that are clearly not mine, that start coming through because her contact info is utterly conflated with mine, and apparently no valid, current info is giving them any leads. The crazy thing I learned last year is that a collection agency doesn't need to divulge any details of the debt they hold to the person they contact. It is incumbent on the contactee to verify whether they reached the wrong person. I began following CFPB instructions on disputing the debt, but the collections agency clammed up and refused to answer any questions until I answered theirs (registered on their website, divulged a lot of PII). However, the joke's on them, because it is very easy to review credit reports and determine whether a debt is or isn't on my own record.
- tommy035959 2mo ago[dead]
- richard_gg 2mo ago[flagged]
- sneak 2mo agoImagine now incorrectly being on the no-fly list. It requires no conviction and has no appeal.
- necovek 2mo agoI believe this real Sean Byrne should move into Sligo for a while, just to spice it up a little. Then they can also ask to be removed from the list as the person on the list.
- anon7000 2mo ago> Asked about it, the head of the FBI’s Terrorist Screening Center said Robert Johnson would never get off the list, and that anyone with the name would be inconvenienced every time they tried to check in. (Said person was already in prison.) So essentially, the federal government and three letter agencies are propagating the crime. The original person did something which presumably violated other people’s rights. Now the federal government continues to violate people’s rights by essentially lying about who’s actually a threat.
- IAmGraydon 2mo agoI used to own a very small, very niche retail business that produced a specific part for analog synthesizers. I had customers in literally nearly every nation on earth, and I was surprised by how many times I received returned package for shipping to a person who was “sanctioned” by the US Government. It was probably something like 1 out of every 100 packages. In each case, the person on the receiving end was surprised to hear about the sanction and I honestly believe most were mistaken identity like the article in this post. When it happens, it’s nearly impossible to do anything about it.
- lbriner 2mo agoWhat makes me kind of angry is this is a totally and easily fixable problem but for whatever reason, the people who could do something about it have no desire for improvement and would happily let the cost and inconvenience continue. Not one single person in that system thinks the very obvious "A name without any other data is worthless, let's just delete it from the list". If people lack agency then you already have an ineffective system but my guess would be that no-one person has the authority to take executive action and every change however daft takes 30 people in a meeting discussing it for an hour so it just gets left as it is.
- HtmlProgrammer 2mo agoI assure you there are several Sean Byrnes in Sligo, and at least one in Drumcliff
- soneil 2mo agoYeah it's pretty much a John Smith, which I assume was half the point, and is now most the problem.
- tommy035959 2mo ago[dead]