Privacy
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I recently applied for a new home insurance policy. They finally sent me the paperwork. Someone ELSE'S paperwork. The original application, complete with names, address, phone and both spouse's social security numbers, copies of both of their full credit reports, and assorted other info.
I called the agent, who didn't seem to care. I called the parent company who took some info but didn't seem to care. I called the state insurance board, who took some info, but didn't seem to care. I called the folks whose financial life history wound up in my hands, but they didn't seem to think it was a big deal.
I shredded the paperwork, but I'm not sure what's the bigger wtf; that nobody in the insurance-stack cared, or this couple didn't care.
If it matters, Allstate and NJ.
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My office was once faxed a random loan application with most of the customer's information already populated. It took the office manager a few hours to realize it didn't belong to anybody, and when she called back the number on the fax cover, it took her a good hour to get in touch with the guy responsible. The application, of course, was shredded.
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I once logged into my mastercard account and it listed someone else's credit card as being mine - it even showed me the card number and the security code. That was about four years ago. I could've charged 4 grand on the poor bugger's card and he wouldn't know what hit him. Mastercard didn't seem to care either.
People only care about this kind of thing when the shit hits the fan. Unfortunately it seems that we're too nice to send other people's personal info to the chans.
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Don't know about over your side of the great watery rift, but here in the UK, you could report that to the ICO - Information Commissioner's Office is in charge of enforcing data protection regs and the like.
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@davedavenotdavemaybedave said:
Don't know about over your side of the great watery rift, but here in the UK, you could report that to the ICO - Information Commissioner's Office is in charge of enforcing data protection regs and the like.
We have something similar, it's called 4chan.
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[quote user="Renan "C#" Sousa"]People only care about this kind of thing when the shit hits the fan.[/quote]Â
Or when it's naked pictures of them. Which are ostensibly harmless if ridiculous.
Skewed importance curve likely due to comprehensibility!
Â
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@snoofle said:
ÂNJ.
Well there's your problem.
I don't go back to that fucking state after my car broke down on the garden state parkway, I called AAA because it was an older car (1990 Jeep Grand Cherokee) and it comes in damn useful for those times when you just need a quick tow to the parts store. Anyway, AAA says "oh NJ doesn't allow us onto their highways, they have their own expensive proprietary towing company they use" so I have to call these fucking asshats to tow my Jeep to a fucking back-country repair shop in the middle of fucking nowhere (also which I have no choice over), and then walk to goddamn atlantic city, take the bus to NYC, take the train to Boston, and then fucking walk home because the busses have stopped running because it's so damn late. NJ is as bad as everybody says it is, definitely the armpit of the USA.Â
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@EJ_ said:
@snoofle said:
ÂNJ.
Well there's your problem.
I don't go back to that fucking state after my car broke down on the garden state parkway, I called AAA because it was an older car (1990 Jeep Grand Cherokee) and it comes in damn useful for those times when you just need a quick tow to the parts store. Anyway, AAA says "oh NJ doesn't allow us onto their highways, they have their own expensive proprietary towing company they use" so I have to call these fucking asshats to tow my Jeep to a fucking back-country repair shop in the middle of fucking nowhere (also which I have no choice over), and then walk to goddamn atlantic city, take the bus to NYC, take the train to Boston, and then fucking walk home because the busses have stopped running because it's so damn late. NJ is as bad as everybody says it is, definitely the armpit of the USA.Â
They've got the same scam on the NJ Turnpike, and it sucks for us locals too. But I gotta ask; you were broken down in Atlantic City, and rather than stay, drink, gamble and possibly partake of some willing Jersey-Girl, you
abandonedleft your jeep and took public transportation home to Boston? Why, why, why would you do that?
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I had this exact thing happen to me. I called the agent and told them, and they were mildly concerned. I shredded the doc, too.
Citibank sent me someone else's bank statement. In that case, I think it may have been a machine error, though, as there were 2 statements in the envelope - mine and that of someone 2 streets over. I thought about calling and telling them, or just mailing it to them, but didn't because I wasn't sure if they'd freak out and blame me the next time something went wrong with their bank account.
Several years ago before most banks were online (or at least before you could do anything useful online with your bank), I had to get a copy of a check I had written to the phone company and which had been cashed to prove to them that I had paid them, and they had cashed my check. (Don't get me started on that story!) So I called the bank and asked them to mail me a copy of the check. I was living just outside Chicago at the time. A week later I get a check that some doctor in Boston had written for his car payment. I called the bank to tell them that a) I didn't get my check, and b) I got someone else's check, and they really didn't care at all. I mean, they could at least pretend to care so that customers don't do what I did, which was immediately switch to another bank. Dumb asses.
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@dcardani said:
I mean, they could at least pretend to care so that customers don't do what I did, which was immediately switch to another bank. Dumb asses.
They could do, but they've probably realised that changing banks is too much hassle for most people to bother for anything short of fraud, and serving the whims of the remainder brings them little profit but lots of aggrevation. In other words, they probably miss you as much as you miss them.
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It's because it doesn't matter. All of that stuff is public information, including the SSN... what the banks aren't telling you about identity theft is - it is their fault. Getting someone's public information and using it to pretend to be them at the bank is possible because the banks aren't using any truly private information to identify you.
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@davedavenotdavemaybedave said:
Don't know about over your side of the great watery rift, but here in the UK, you could report that to the ICO - Information Commissioner's Office is in charge of enforcing data protection regs and the like.
Or just hold it up in front of the nearest closed circuit camera-- there's probably one pointing into your bedroom window. Handy.
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@blakeyrat said:
just hold it up in front of the nearest closed circuit camera-- there's probably one pointing into your bedroom window. Handy.
That is awesome. I am never wearing pants at home again!
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@belgariontheking said:
That is awesome. I am never wearing pants at home again!
ÂLike you needed another excuse!
Â
Or any.
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[quote user="Renan "C#" Sousa"]
I once logged into my mastercard account and it listed someone else's credit card as being mine - it even showed me the card number and the security code. That was about four years ago. I could've charged 4 grand on the poor bugger's card and he wouldn't know what hit him.
[/quote]We have some Xerox printers in our office, and we order consumables from their web-based
pile o' crapordering tool. About a year ago, as well as our four printers, another one (completely different model to ours) appeared, listed to an address that's in another town, and nothing to do with us in the slightest.Every now and again (ok, probably once a week), we order them some consumables.... just because we can. Wonder how their stockpile is getting....
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Why, in the age of Facebook, we don't need no stinking privacy!
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 I know a guy who for YEARS who got monthly reports from a car rental agency with the details of all their renters for the month in his email. His name is Nate Lastname, his email is nlastname@someISP.com - the reports were addressed to an Nicole Lastname. He called the agency in question, hell, he even called their corporate office. He even managed to track down this Nicole Lastname and tell her, AND he did the same for the person who was emailing the reports out. Nobody cared that customer data was being emailed to some external email address and wasn't even reaching the intended recipient. It continued until one day the person sending the reports sent "Nicole" a letter wishing her luck at her new job.
Mind you this was in the kinder gentler days before identity theft was a household phrase (but long after it existed as a concept)
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@MeesterTurner said:
Every now and again (ok, probably once a week), we order them some consumables.... just because we can. Wonder how their stockpile is getting....
Dude, if the town in anywhere nearby, you should drop in and say hello.
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@Weng said:
 I know a guy who for YEARS who got monthly reports from a car rental agency with the details of all their renters for the month in his email. His name is Nate Lastname, his email is nlastname@someISP.com - the reports were addressed to an Nicole Lastname. He called the agency in question, hell, he even called their corporate office. He even managed to track down this Nicole Lastname and tell her, AND he did the same for the person who was emailing the reports out. Nobody cared that customer data was being emailed to some external email address and wasn't even reaching the intended recipient. It continued until one day the person sending the reports sent "Nicole" a letter wishing her luck at her new job.
Mind you this was in the kinder gentler days before identity theft was a household phrase (but long after it existed as a concept)
The correct response to this would be to create an email filter to auto-reply to all of these messages with something like "I AM NOT NICOLE, STOP SENDING ME THIS SHIT". I think he'd catch on after a few iterations.
Once when my family moved, the person who bought the old house had the same last name. Therefore the post office forwarded all of his mail to our new address, including his bills. Mailing it back to him didn't work, it would just come back to us with a note that we had moved. Now, over a decade later, we still get a call every few years from a collection agency looking for this guy.
Edit: WTF, why did it take about 15 seconds "uploading" (complete with percentages and a progress bar) when I posted this?
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@joemck said:
Edit: WTF, why did it take about 15 seconds "uploading" (complete with percentages and a progress bar) when I posted this?
ÂA dip in server performance with braindead forum software loading all 500+K of unique post tags on every fucking page load.
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@dhromed said:
@joemck said:
Edit: WTF, why did it take about 15 seconds "uploading" (complete with percentages and a progress bar) when I posted this?
ÂA dip in server performance with braindead forum software loading all 500+K of unique post tags on every fucking page load.
It would be slightly quicker, except it loads every single tag... twice. To quote Contact, "why build one when you can build two at only twice the cost?"
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I misestimated.
Tag count is upwards of 460,000 bytes.
