Clearly this is well orchestrated and professional. I'm wondering what could be the motivation for such an attack. There is no monetary benefit whatsoever. Perhaps some AI company wanting to acquire solid data to train their models?
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Quora User Data Compromised
201–210 of 525 posts
Re: Quora User Data Compromised
#202I'm experiencing a sense of schadenfruede because I'm embittered by Quora's arrogant "real names" policy. They won't "let me" contribute. Nothing insightful. I'm just here to kick them while they're down.
It's not that hard to be as anonymous as you like on Quora. It's been a while since I contributed, because I got tired of their schizophrenic moderation, but I don't recall that mobile text authentication was necessary. Unlike say, Twitter. And even that isn't all that hard to get around, using hosted SIMs.
It's impossible for me to be as anonymous as I like on Quora, because they require a government ID with the name I want to use. Which isn't even that weird! It's my legal last name, plus my childhood nickname for a first name.
Your name just didn't provoke their Real Name Gestapo.
Re: Quora User Data Compromised
#203Earlier quoted context omitted.
I use privacy.com and Lastpass to help with this problem. Any time there is a service I have to have a business relationship with that I don't trust to keep my info secure, I use a unique password and a unique credit card number with a tight limit. What's nice is that they tie the card to a single vendor too. For example, the water company. I know the water bill is usually $50 or less, so I set the limit to $60/mo. A…
Lastpass has been going downhill with every acquisition and had gotten to the point where autofill failed on the majority of sites and the "copy password" menu item disappeared, bringing clicks-to-login from 1 to ~10. A few weeks ago I saw bitwarden finish their third party security audit and took the opportunity to jump. Couldn't be happier. Autofill fails less, the "copy password" menu works, the mobile experience…
LastPass is one of my least liked most used tools. Everything about the implentation feels second rate; slow, unreliable login capture, unreliable form fill, occasional inability to edit records, buried password copy, clunky UI, inappropriate modal nagging in browser and app... Most times I use it I am cursing it.
I tried to switch to pass, and I'm not sure if it was something to do with how I imported but it didn't list my passwords and the browser plugin was clunky and didn't work. Anyone had success with pass/gopass.
Bitwarden seems like a happy Medium, I'd rather not do my password ops. The pricing seems fair (and rather optional). I'll try it, thanks.
Re: Quora User Data Compromised
#204Can anyone explain how is Quora still relevant? How did they raise the $85M for their series D only last year?
To me it seems its going the way of Yahoo Answers, if it already hasn't. It might be gaining some traction in developing countries but the ratio of signal:noise seems really low at this time, coupled with terrible UI.
Re: Quora User Data Compromised
#205This is why I hate companies that force you to sign up to gain access to content. I do not want that relationship. Sooner or later those systems will be legacy and then maintaining them will be a pain. Bitrot will set in and sooner or later there will be a breach. One new development is that you used to be able to get your invoices mailed via snail mail. Then that disappeared and you got your invoices mailed via emai…
I use privacy.com and Lastpass to help with this problem. Any time there is a service I have to have a business relationship with that I don't trust to keep my info secure, I use a unique password and a unique credit card number with a tight limit. What's nice is that they tie the card to a single vendor too. For example, the water company. I know the water bill is usually $50 or less, so I set the limit to $60/mo. A…
I looked over privacy.com - specifically their security page[0] which reads impressively. As I looked at my "dashboard" I couldn't help but notice (according to uBlock Origin) that privacy.com, ironically, connects to facebook (.net) and google (fonts, apis, gstatic).
I'm certain none of those 3rd-party connections are necessary and yet... like muscle-memory... devs continue to thoughtlessly invite tracking.
Re: Quora User Data Compromised
#206Earlier quoted context omitted.
I use privacy.com and Lastpass to help with this problem. Any time there is a service I have to have a business relationship with that I don't trust to keep my info secure, I use a unique password and a unique credit card number with a tight limit. What's nice is that they tie the card to a single vendor too. For example, the water company. I know the water bill is usually $50 or less, so I set the limit to $60/mo. A…
LastPass is not helping you with privacy here. From their tos tos: > You may use our Services only as permitted in these Terms, and you consent to our Privacy Policy at https://www.logmeininc.com/legal/privacy , which is incorporated by reference. pp: > When you use our Services, we receive information generated through the use of the Service, either entered by you or others who use the Services with you (for example…
I haven't even tried to use these services, can someone please explain why centralizing all your online activity helps with privacy?
Re: Quora User Data Compromised
#207My take on Quora and business like them: They are hiring people based on leet code questions and school prestige and not based on real technical knowledge about systems. Their business people are top school MBA grads with no security domain expertise. They then proceed to build massive data collection programs using open source tooling that non of them fully understand. Their business model depends on that data and m…
> They are hiring people based on leet code questions and school prestige and not based on real technical knowledge about systems
Isn't that true for almost all companies based in the Sillicon Valley?
Re: Quora User Data Compromised
#208I've started keeping a log of all information I provide to a company: addresses, phone numbers, names, social security number, etc... I started doing it just to keep track of everywhere I need to update next time I change address, phone, cards, and emails at the same time[1], but it's been eye opening to watch the list grow.
I think of it as something like a reverse password manager; instead of "here's a website, what's my data", it's "here's a bit of information about myself, who has it?"
It's a pain keeping that list updated but at this point I'm so hooked on being able to see my personal info leak out into the world bit by bit that the friction is worth it.
I'm still trying to figure out what I should do with the data I have on myself, if anyone has any suggestions.
[1] That situation seems sketchy seeing it written down like that, so just want to explain that it's because I moved to a different country (address, phone, credit cards) and away from gmail at the same time.
Re: Quora User Data Compromised
#209Earlier quoted context omitted.
I believe you're being cynical, because this forced name policy allows for answers to be of higher quality, which is basically their entire selling point - being a better yahoo answers. If you want anonymity there are other platforms for that, stackexchange for example.
That's a false dichotomy. Ask MetaFilter is a much better Yahoo Answers, but I can be pseudonymous there. Also, my pseudonym is much closer to a real identity than what's on my driver's license. I don't have any real reason to fear sharing my "real name" with Quora. I'm lucky. But I'm not the only person in the world. Good thing I'm not trans or a religious dissident. Good thing the only thing stopping me from contri…
> That's a false dichotomy. Ask MetaFilter is a much better Yahoo Answers, but I can be pseudonymous there.
There's an example that just happens to be the greatest knowledge platform ever built in world history. Wikipedia allows non real name contributions. Plainly next to that, Quora has no legitimate excuse for requiring real names to ensure quality. It's for one reason: $$$. They have to figure out how to reach a $3b valuation at some point so their VC owners can get a reasonable exit. It guarantees an inevitable disaster for a knowledge service. The conflict between quality and always needing more and more junk content to slap ads on and allowing for abusive business practices to reach for that fat exit for the VCs. And if you don't do it, they'll put someone in charge that will. Unless you can find another business model as Stack Exchange did, stay private & small/lean (so you don't have to try to pretend to be a $3b company when your business model will never legitimately get you beyond 1/20th that), or go the donation Wikipedia route.
Re: Quora User Data Compromised
#210This is why I hate companies that force you to sign up to gain access to content. I do not want that relationship. Sooner or later those systems will be legacy and then maintaining them will be a pain. Bitrot will set in and sooner or later there will be a breach. One new development is that you used to be able to get your invoices mailed via snail mail. Then that disappeared and you got your invoices mailed via emai…
I use privacy.com and Lastpass to help with this problem. Any time there is a service I have to have a business relationship with that I don't trust to keep my info secure, I use a unique password and a unique credit card number with a tight limit. What's nice is that they tie the card to a single vendor too. For example, the water company. I know the water bill is usually $50 or less, so I set the limit to $60/mo. A…
Same. All my passwords are 100+ characters via LastPass. Except the ones the have to be only 12 :(