Hacker News Reader

Then when you go to open a credit card or actually try to clean up your credit report, you'll need to remember which Taco Bell you randomly pretended to live at to answer security questions.

When I run into that problem I wait for the rejection mail from the creditor, then I write back with a redacted photocopy of my IDs - completely useless with everything blacked out but my name - and a copy of their letter. I say here is my redacted ID as proof of identity and a photocopy of your letter as proof of receipt so please approve me and that has worked every time so far. It makes it very easy to see where the line between security and security theater is drawn. Not that any US bank is going to win awards for security (except maybe Robinhood, they really stand out with standards based 2FA and the ability to block external ACH with a click)

sad state of affairs that this level of surgical precision and orchestration is required just to not be stalked and creeped on to incredible levels. and this doesn’t even cover the situation with respective to showing up on relatives’ profiles.

if you have the time, you should make a complimentary “solution” read me page for this post.

deletion really does seem to be an unwinnable proposition, so flooding with false data is a great approach. can this be automated?

UK civil service users third party identity confirmation for jobs, companiess like Experian and the Post Office - you know companies that leak personal data like a sieve.

Anyway, one of the verifiers is past addresses, so this sort of thing could prove a problem when applying for jobs in the UK.

Tories gotta tory - put a private firm between people and job applications, demand they give all their ID data to that firm. Oh, and the firms all have recent mass data leaks.

It's a core part of several gov departments (passports, drivers licensing, benefits, taxes) to be able to ID people and the gov have all the data with which to do it. Crazy.

If you send any sales person an email with your email signature there is a chance they are using ZoomInfo. That tool will scrape your email for your email signature and now they can sell your very accurate data.

Aren't some of these criminal fraud?

No. One requirement for criminal fraud is that you gain something of value.

but you do gain something of value here, privacy.

how is value defined in this context?

The legal definition, which doesn't include things like happiness/privacy/karma.

Generally, in court, "value" means "market value" expressed in the currency of the court's country. Often the penalties for various levels of fraud are based on the value (= market value) of the gain -- for example, hypothetically, the law might state that if the value was under $1,000 it's a misdemeanor rather than a felony or that if the value was under $100 you can't be sentenced to prison time.

Something like my own privacy which has value only to one person (me) does not have market value.

[edit: added two paragraphs]

> - Put in a mail forwarding card with your name from a former address to a random real address like a Starbucks, Taco Bell, apartment complex w/o unit number, etc.

Perhaps, but I would have assumed creating a USPS mail forward under false pretenses like this would be fraudulent. They seem to take such thing seriously.

GP also mentions in a sibling comment about what to do if you need address verification for something else (which is presumably of value):

> All you need is a passport or driver’s license and a utility bill with current address dated within 60 days. Most of the time the utility bill can be a “photocopy” and you just change the date or address to what you need. DMV is about the only place that needs an original document and will be familiar with what bills from your area look and feel like (because they most likely live nearby also and routinely handle documents from people in the same area as you).

Doctoring a document like this also seems illegal.

I think you're copying from a different comment than the one I replied to.

It is absurd to accept something like a utility bill as a proof of anything. Even birth certificates I don’t really understand - my original birth certificate is hand typed by an IBM Selectric typewriter on common security paper and embossed with the county seal of the area where I was born. As very few people would be able to verify the seal I think it’s more or less worthless as an secure document because it could be reproduced or approximated so easily. You can obtain guides with examples of secure documents but they are large and expensive, and I’ve never seen them at retail banks or the DMV. I’m not sure how comprehensive they are either - collecting samples at the county or city level across the decades would be a Herculean task.