Congrats on finally selling your home!!!! I’m thrilled for you!! But yeah, I always wondered how they knew all this random crap about me. Interesting insight from you as a security guy. Thanks!
Thanks. I'll feel better about the sale once I actually get paid.
"Data brokers" are an evil business. The scrape every little tidbit they can find about you online and sell it to anyone that will buy it. You can "opt out" and they will delete you, but what they tend not to tell you is that they immediately start rebuilding their profile on you. So manually requesting each data broker company to delete your profile is like playing "whack-a-mole".
The only defense I know (other than paying a company like https://joindeleteme.com/ ) is to intentionally allow false information to continue to circulate. Of course the downside of that is exactly what just bit me in the butt.
Especially for those of us who have been scammed before, I wonder what security measures can be taken to prevent theft without giving up so much of ourselves out there. Is there an easier solution? I don’t like giving out my biometrics either. Gives me the creeps. Even for employment, having to get fingerprinted and having a background check run feels invasive. I understand it, I don’t want creeps near children either, but is there a different solution?
Excellent question. The "easy" answer tends to come with a price tag. Pay "Delete Me" $9 a month to keep your information out of the data brokers. But why should we have to pay for this? Wouldn't a better solution be to outlaw selling private data?
Security and privacy / freedom will always compete. Most of my life you simply applied for a job and if they liked you they hired you. Now it seems like the system probes you intimately, which feels very invasive, and gives me the feel of living in "1984".
Where did human trust evaporate to? Sure embezzlement continues to occur all the time, but I don't see this invasive screening helping at all, it's up to businesses to "check and verify" (aka payroll / accounting should always have audits and independent checks - if a business doesn't well then putting trust in a single individual makes them vulnerable to that individual - I've seen this multiple times in my career).
In my opinion, all this surveillance is not making our children any safer (maybe the opposite). We can't offload parenting to government and "systems".
Overall, I feel like we need a culture shift. Instead of everyone feeling entitled to screw over their neighbor / friend / coworker because "everyone does it", we need a society where such attitudes are not welcome.
I was hoping to find this in "small town" life, but apparently I need to seek out "tiny town" not a "small town".
What you describe is why I answer all kinds of different ways on questionaires. Like when banks and credit cards want to update your info. Why? I'm not applying for a new card...so I just make up different numbers. I also make up names on newsletters so I can see who sold my data. When I did a real estate transaction last year they would not accept a copy of my marriage license and I had to order a new one. That was 19 years ago, no clue where the original went.
Yes, but by feeding the system false information, we create this problem of being unable to identify ourselves! They literally don't believe that I am myself!
That is understandable. My problem is partly of my own making (I forgot I owned a 1983 Honda, much less what color it was). We can say that the extra $300 cost is worth a little privacy.
But my point is we still don't have that privacy! I never told anyone that I had a 1983 Honda (nor what color it was). This particular case wasn't a situation of my not giving out real information. They have a piece of trivia about me which even I don't know!
The check cashing routine adds several more steps where an error could be made or a bad actor might intercept the money.
After failing their test, why can't we go back to trusting the face to face encounter? Which has been double confirmed by having my email address and my phone number.
yes it's ridiculous! Banks are so weird. I closed an account and it had 2 cents of interest left in it. I told them to just keep it and close the account. No they can't do it that way. So I said just deposit it into the other account I have there. Can't do that either they said. So they sent me a check for 2 cents! and I deposited it to the other account. How much extra did that cost them?? Madness. But yes face to face should have been enough!
Yet another problem with online authentication being required to prove we are ourselves, from another person:
“My Apple account is attached to my late husband’s email, which is no longer in service.
For some reason the App Store no longer recognizes my password, and in order to change the password they send the link to his non-existent email.
Even to change the email, they want to send a confirmation to his email.
So I’m stuck.”
Congrats on finally selling your home!!!! I’m thrilled for you!! But yeah, I always wondered how they knew all this random crap about me. Interesting insight from you as a security guy. Thanks!
Thanks. I'll feel better about the sale once I actually get paid.
"Data brokers" are an evil business. The scrape every little tidbit they can find about you online and sell it to anyone that will buy it. You can "opt out" and they will delete you, but what they tend not to tell you is that they immediately start rebuilding their profile on you. So manually requesting each data broker company to delete your profile is like playing "whack-a-mole".
The only defense I know (other than paying a company like https://joindeleteme.com/ ) is to intentionally allow false information to continue to circulate. Of course the downside of that is exactly what just bit me in the butt.
Especially for those of us who have been scammed before, I wonder what security measures can be taken to prevent theft without giving up so much of ourselves out there. Is there an easier solution? I don’t like giving out my biometrics either. Gives me the creeps. Even for employment, having to get fingerprinted and having a background check run feels invasive. I understand it, I don’t want creeps near children either, but is there a different solution?
Excellent question. The "easy" answer tends to come with a price tag. Pay "Delete Me" $9 a month to keep your information out of the data brokers. But why should we have to pay for this? Wouldn't a better solution be to outlaw selling private data?
Security and privacy / freedom will always compete. Most of my life you simply applied for a job and if they liked you they hired you. Now it seems like the system probes you intimately, which feels very invasive, and gives me the feel of living in "1984".
Where did human trust evaporate to? Sure embezzlement continues to occur all the time, but I don't see this invasive screening helping at all, it's up to businesses to "check and verify" (aka payroll / accounting should always have audits and independent checks - if a business doesn't well then putting trust in a single individual makes them vulnerable to that individual - I've seen this multiple times in my career).
In my opinion, all this surveillance is not making our children any safer (maybe the opposite). We can't offload parenting to government and "systems".
Overall, I feel like we need a culture shift. Instead of everyone feeling entitled to screw over their neighbor / friend / coworker because "everyone does it", we need a society where such attitudes are not welcome.
I was hoping to find this in "small town" life, but apparently I need to seek out "tiny town" not a "small town".
What you describe is why I answer all kinds of different ways on questionaires. Like when banks and credit cards want to update your info. Why? I'm not applying for a new card...so I just make up different numbers. I also make up names on newsletters so I can see who sold my data. When I did a real estate transaction last year they would not accept a copy of my marriage license and I had to order a new one. That was 19 years ago, no clue where the original went.
Yes, but by feeding the system false information, we create this problem of being unable to identify ourselves! They literally don't believe that I am myself!
I would rather go thru the check cashing routine than give them my real info! Just my little rebellion. 💕
That is understandable. My problem is partly of my own making (I forgot I owned a 1983 Honda, much less what color it was). We can say that the extra $300 cost is worth a little privacy.
But my point is we still don't have that privacy! I never told anyone that I had a 1983 Honda (nor what color it was). This particular case wasn't a situation of my not giving out real information. They have a piece of trivia about me which even I don't know!
The check cashing routine adds several more steps where an error could be made or a bad actor might intercept the money.
After failing their test, why can't we go back to trusting the face to face encounter? Which has been double confirmed by having my email address and my phone number.
yes it's ridiculous! Banks are so weird. I closed an account and it had 2 cents of interest left in it. I told them to just keep it and close the account. No they can't do it that way. So I said just deposit it into the other account I have there. Can't do that either they said. So they sent me a check for 2 cents! and I deposited it to the other account. How much extra did that cost them?? Madness. But yes face to face should have been enough!
Yes, the world has turned into madness......right as scheduled.
🤣🤣🤣🤣
Great example. Yes, I've had a few similar situations.
You need the Lord.