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If you lost your wallet at Outside Lands, your information is now public

plusbryan.com

31–36 of 36 posts

Re: If you lost your wallet at Outside Lands, your information is now public

#31
post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Can't I go to the University of Central Oklahoma registrar's office and get the full names of thousands and thousands of people who went there, as well as what states they're from? I don't know about the University of Central Oklahoma, but this would be explicitly prohibited at the University of Waterloo. There's a specific policy that covers access to student information: https://uwaterloo.ca/secretariat/policies-…

In the US, FERPA covers private information like grades and schedules, but biographical information and the fact that you attended is public record unless you submit a specific form.

FERPA may serve as a baseline for federally mandated privacy rights of students, but many schools have additionally protections that are remarkably strict.

Re: If you lost your wallet at Outside Lands, your information is now public

#32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're right, it is a bit silly and it doesn't have to be made into a big deal. But it's also information they had no right to disclose, and furthermore is completely unnecessary. Why did they even need to put the person's name in the list? The owner certainly could write in with their name, and that could be used to identify the card easily.

If they weren't going to put names on the list, what would they put beyond a bunch of stats, such as "we found 455 California drivers licenses this year"? Also, if you leave your data in a public place (such as Golden Gate Park), I don't think anyone should really expect privacy. Imagine if there was no lost and found service and all of the wallets were just left in the mud after Outside Lands (this is the control ca…

> Also, if you leave your data in a public place (such as Golden Gate Park), I don't think anyone should really expect privacy

Well, there's a difference between dropping your wallet, and having all of your info publicly accessible on the web...

Re: If you lost your wallet at Outside Lands, your information is now public

#34
post #8

"Your information is now public" ... as in, your full name and the fact that you went to Outside Lands and lost something? I don't see what the big deal here is. Coachella had a very similar practice when it came to trying to reunite owners w/ their IDs and credit cards. They are not posting credit card numbers, they are not posting cities... there is nothing identifying at all that would pose any danger to these peo…

When I find your wallet, I do not own the contents really and I certainly do not have "broadcast rights". If I find your password to facebook on the web somewhere, does that give me any rights to your account? No. If I leave the front door of my house open by mistake, am I waiving my property rights if someone comes in and takes my property? No.

Re: If you lost your wallet at Outside Lands, your information is now public

#35
post #7

It would be a cool weekend project to scrape this data and do a search for these people's public profiles that have also mentioned the word "lost" or "OutsideLands" and send them a message

Scraping for good, how novel.

Re: If you lost your wallet at Outside Lands, your information is now public

#36

> For instance, using name matching alone, you can clearly identify the full name of a student at University of Central Oklahoma, what state she’s from, where she went to undergrad, and where she shops for gas. ...and do what, exactly?

It is not anyone's business to know what these people do with their time, unless they choose to willingly share. Yes the chance for actual harm is low (the only thing that immediately came to mind is something along the lines of "college student who promised their parents they were studying for the CPA that weekend but now helicopter mom found out the truth", etc). But it is the principle of the matter. We still have…

What is this, "it's not anyone's business" bit? It's also not anyone's business what goes on outside of our solar system, or what goes on at the bottom of the ocean.
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