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This is broadly impractical for the average citizen. A scalable solution would be to make this sort of thing illegal.

• qurren 1mo ago
  > This is broadly impractical for the average citizen. No it's not. Sign up for a virtual mailbox for $15-$25/month. > A scalable solution would be to make this sort of thing illegal. I'm posting this in the genuine interest of people being able to maintain anonymity from data leaks, privacy leaks, and in general not needing to tell businesses more personal information than is necessary to render services. This is in a country that has no protection of personal safety whatsoever, and any business data leak could mean life or death to average citizens who are being threatened by criminals, stalkers, and more. It seems every time I post something of this flavor the same handful of you come out of the woods and want to make privacy illegal, and I'm not sure who you are trying to support.
  • nemomarx 1mo ago
    I think they meant make what Microsoft is doing illegal? or make it illegal to ask for address, etc. definitely a little more effective than mailboxes
    • qurren 1mo ago
      Ahhh okay if that's what they meant, then yes, I 100% agree and apologize in advance. I fully agree that businesses should not be asking for addresses. Non-financial businesses don't need to KYC in the first place, and financial institutions can KYC without needing to know where you sleep. I got triggered because people seem to always want to come out of the woods and say "addresses should be public record" or things of that sort and I vehemently disagree in the interest of privacy, in a country where a stalker can just look you up, terrorize you, and the police will do nothing about it.
      • rexpop 26d ago
        No, it was my brusque wording that maximized ambiguity. I am with you about the importance of privacy—we otherwise risk immeasurable horrors.
  • theideaofcoffee 1mo ago
    They (the ones wanting to make privacy illegal) are just the ones that want to develop the tools and consume the data for it because it'll be good for their resume or some bullshit, or they're just intrinsically broken humans.
  • ygjb 1mo ago
    > No it's not. Sign up for a virtual mailbox for $15-$25/month. Did you notice that it's an affordability crisis out there? An absolutely enormous number of people are skipping bills, taking on credit, and using predatory lenders to make end meets, and your recommendation is to add another fee on top of things. It's not practical or useful guidance for the vast majority of people. I strongly agree with supporting privacy, but this sort of behaviour (adding trackers, etc) to normal functions without a full disclosure and opt-out mechanism must be made illegal, otherwise we are just creating markets for "privacy preserving" technologies that are increasingly less likely to actually be effective for that purpose but sure do put on a good theatre of seeming that way.
    • AbsurdCensor 1mo ago
      At least in the US it's not even a good method either. Own a house? Boom, your information is publically available and you won't be able to remove it without a court order, which in most states is impossible to get. In most states, you don't even need to own a house, decide to vote? You information again is publically available. Tie your real name to a single account to purchase something, and you are trackable. Want privacy? You'd need to remove yourself from the internet, dump your phone, destroy your ID and work underground for cash. We can push against iot, and people have been forever, but at the end of the day the government will always they have a vested interest in being able to identify it's citizens.
      • qurren 1mo ago
        [dead]
      • Tangurena2 1mo ago
        As a state employee, even more of my info is online. One of my coworkers pointed this page out to me: https://transparency.ky.gov/search/Pages/SalarySearch.aspx#/salary https://transparency.ky.gov/search/Pages/SalarySearch.aspx#/... > and work underground for cash My sister was a member of Scientology for 2 decades and she was encouraged to do this. As a result, she has almost no Social Security earnings and her Social Security check is about 1/4 of what she would be getting if she reported (and paid taxes to the government instead of to her "church") her income. > decide to vote? Your information again is publicly available I ran for elected office in the past. When I asked the voter registration office for a "walking list", they only checked that I did get on the ballot and I was provided with a list of every registered voter in the district I was running for. It had names, addresses, phone numbers, political party and a list of what elections you voted in (I think it went back 8 years). Some people were rather upset that I had access to that information when I knocked on their door and asked them to vote for me.
  • Modified3019 1mo ago
    > No it's not. Sign up for a virtual mailbox for $15-$25/month. You are out of touch.
    • Tangurena2 1mo ago
      We stopped paying for a USPS PO Box when the price of the smallest one passed $150/year.
  • autoexec 1mo ago
    > Sign up for a virtual mailbox for $15-$25/month. That isn't going to stop Microsoft from collecting your address by collecting your wifi info, or from the data you enter into websites or documents. When the maker of your OS is the enemy you will always lose.
    • qurren 1mo ago
      Technically true but I don't think their engineering is advanced enough that it actually happens that way.
      • account42 1mo ago
        Why not? Collecting Wifi access point SSIDs to enhance locating has been bog standard in the industry.
  • account42 1mo ago
    Yet another subscription plus the hassle of managing that mailbox is impractical for most people.