111–120 of 151 posts
I have no problem with the phone book, there was a time when everybody's name number and address was published in a book they regularly left on your doorstep, it didn't seem like a huge invasion of privacy.
I do have a problem with the postal rates for mass mail and telemarketing laws – the real source of the issues here.
How to Cut Down on Unwanted Junk Mail https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/08/smarter-living/how-to-cut... I get very little paper mail now except for companies that I already have accounts with (and who seem to believe that “paperless” doesn’t apply to the marketing departments).
This really pisses me off because you don't even have an option to not do business with the DMV. Even if you don't drive (highly unlikely in FL), you still need a non-driving ID card so there's no way to avoid getting swept up into this bullshit. I see they have included an opt out link. That's nice. I wonder if they honor it. Even if they do, 99.999% of the population will never even know to do this because they've…
Just to clarify, the state ID is not required by law, but you will be hard pressed to get by socially without it.
This is pretty bad. The usual argument of " if you don't like it don't use Facebook/Google/(insert company here) " doesn't apply here. You have to interact with the government to get a DL, there are no competitors. Therefor government services should treat personal information with the utmost respect and discretion, not sell it off to the highest bidder.
In Florida, its not personal though and its not just DMVs. Basically if the government has your information, anyone can submit a FOIA request to get it. This is particularly bad with licensed professionals (Real Estate agents, hair saloon cutters, etc.) that have to have a business license to operate. You can get the contact information (email, home address, phone number) for all of these individuals b/c its required…
You need a government-issued licence to cut hair in Florida?!
Been happening for decades. When I got my driver's license (in the 1980's) in Iowa, they misspelled my name - Soseph instead of Joseph. I asked for a corrected license. They typed up another one but didn't go back and correct the record. So, I got solicitations in the mail for months for Soseph Altmaier. And that was before computers were used much.
I don't get why IRL mail spam is still allowed. It's a fucking nuisance. 95% of the mail I get is junk mail. Another 4% is recurring bill notices or something similarly low-value (yeah, I could probably make some of those go away by logging into whatever-it-is and checking a box somewhere, but it's overwhelmed by the junk mail anyway). Maybe 1% is something I actually care about. And I get a lot of mail. I'd pay a fe…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
In Florida, its not personal though and its not just DMVs. Basically if the government has your information, anyone can submit a FOIA request to get it. This is particularly bad with licensed professionals (Real Estate agents, hair saloon cutters, etc.) that have to have a business license to operate. You can get the contact information (email, home address, phone number) for all of these individuals b/c its required…
> hair saloon cutters You need a government-issued licence to cut hair in Florida?!
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't get why IRL mail spam is still allowed. It's a fucking nuisance. 95% of the mail I get is junk mail. Another 4% is recurring bill notices or something similarly low-value (yeah, I could probably make some of those go away by logging into whatever-it-is and checking a box somewhere, but it's overwhelmed by the junk mail anyway). Maybe 1% is something I actually care about. And I get a lot of mail. I'd pay a fe…
> It's a fucking nuisance It's also a monumental waste of resources: process trees for paper, process inks, print the spam, ship spam to distribution center, ship spam to local dispatch, drive spam to mailbox, recipient puts spam directly into trash, garbage collector drives to collect spam, dump spam into a hole in the ground, bury the spam. While I'm sure it's inaccurate, that's about the gist of it, isn't it? You…
Been happening for decades. When I got my driver's license (in the 1980's) in Iowa, they misspelled my name - Soseph instead of Joseph. I asked for a corrected license. They typed up another one but didn't go back and correct the record. So, I got solicitations in the mail for months for Soseph Altmaier. And that was before computers were used much.
I don't get why IRL mail spam is still allowed. It's a fucking nuisance. 95% of the mail I get is junk mail. Another 4% is recurring bill notices or something similarly low-value (yeah, I could probably make some of those go away by logging into whatever-it-is and checking a box somewhere, but it's overwhelmed by the junk mail anyway). Maybe 1% is something I actually care about. And I get a lot of mail. I'd pay a fe…
Simple: it's a source of income for the USPS.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> hair saloon cutters You need a government-issued licence to cut hair in Florida?!
Pretty much all states require a hairdresser's license.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Given the prevalence of the “all taxes are bad” narrative that’s effectively cut taxes over the past couple of decades I’m not surprised. The money has to come from somewhere, so if the honest way of getting money is blocked the dishonest ones have to be used.
That pre-supposes that the problem is money - state and local revenues have been growing at 6%+ CAGR since the 1970’s, well in excess of inflation. https://www.taxpolicycenter.org/statistics/state-general-rev...