Ask HN: Who really gives your personal info to Intelius, Instant Checkmate, etc?

Post by dredmorbius » Tue, Mar 07, 2017, 9:36 PM UTC

ams6110 wrote: post #186

monodeldiablo wrote: post #163

I've had the misfortune to be present for an in-person demo of a verification service nearly a decade ago. It involved those relationship questions ("Which one of the following people have you not lived with in the last 5 years?") that are incredibly creepy. I was shocked that they had so much data on me -- I have no debt, no credit cards, no house, no car, no bills, and I had always entered informal rent agreements…

Do we forget that not long ago everyone's name, address, and phone number was published in the phone book (unless you paid extra for an unlisted number), and hospital admissions were published in the daily newspaper. It used to be unremarkable, and now people shriek "privacy!!" when it's discovered that some mundane detail about their life is not a closely held secret.

Post by o_____________o » Wed, Mar 08, 2017, 10:34 PM UTC

jszymborski wrote: post #149

JoshTriplett wrote: post #14

If anyone reading this thread is interested: I would pay non-trivial amounts of money on a regular basis for a service that systematically worked to eliminate records like these (and the sources they draw from), as well as chasing down sources of junk mail and the lists they ultimately draw from. The value would depend on effectiveness, and on the degree to which the service clearly reported exactly what they did. Ca…

I've been recently: 1) Segregating automated email to some @customdomain.com address (Yandex and Zoho host vanity domains for free) 2) Forward all email @ that domain to a common inbox 3) Sign-up with servicename@customdomain.com (e.g: facebook@customdomain.com) You no-longer need to unsubscribe using dubious e-mail links, just automatically black-hole emails that come from spammer@customdomain.com So, far, so good.…

Post by avh02 » Sun, Mar 12, 2017, 12:15 PM UTC

megous wrote: post #173

avh02 wrote: post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I just started doing the wildcard domain thing last month, I'm happier knowing that I can shut the taps. I get annoyed just knowing that there's spam in my spam list. First time I was on the phone with a customer service rep. after using the @ .com format I was asked if i was sure my email address was correct. I lol'ed and told them not to worry about it.

I use random 20 char string for the local part. That way there's no question about the leak. Spammers use a lot of dictionary words in the local part of the email address, so it's better to have a random string. If you're using password manager anyway, there's no reason not to make email/username random too. For smaller e-shops you might find some with actively exploited 0days this way. I did.