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The other Sean Byrne doesn't exist

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Re: The other Sean Byrne doesn't exist

#71

Post by wizzwizz4 »

Aozora7 wrote: post #43
rendall wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A government may have entirely benign reasons for creating a comprehensive population database, but you cannot guarantee who will control that database later. You have to trust the people who control it, not only now, but at all times in the future, but history does not support that. Nazi Germany and occupied forces used census data, municipal population registers, etc., to identify and track down targeted people. Th…

A government won't give up on malicious acts just because it lacks accurate census. The United States does a lot more surveillance and oppression than EU countries that have national ID and mandatory ID documents. The lack of a comprehensive population database only seems to hinder the actual useful civilian bureaucracy, not law enforcement, intelligence services, or ICE. The latter just grab anyone who looks brown e…

In the US, where race is entirely defined by skin pigmentation and there's heavy segregation ("redlining") of living quarters, sure: databases aren't necessary. But in places where race is defined by heritage or culture, things which can be disguised by the targets of a regime, these databases are a vital part of any serious ethnic cleansing operation. I don't remember the statistic in IBM and the Holocaust that compares Jew survival rates in occupied countries with versus without digitised censuses, but the difference was stark.

Re: The other Sean Byrne doesn't exist

#72

Post by matherial »

Aozora7 wrote: post #26

This is one of the obvious consequences of not having a national identity number assigned to everyone at birth, which exist in most developed countries, except for anglosphere, for some reason.

How so? The article is talking about a fictitious person that's listed by name only on a sanctions list despite the government knowing the person doesn't exist. There is no possibility of the real Sean Byrne presenting a government number that is a negative match against the list because the fake Sean Byrne has no known ID to match against. The essence of the entry is just "here's a name to avoid".

The real Sean Byrne can produce a government-issued passport number, but that's clearly not enough for Apple.

I think it's more of a problem of all these "hyperscale" platforms where the cost of not being zealous enough is long litigation and devastating fines, while the cost of losing a single customer (or a thousand) is basically nil. This leads to all kinds of opaque, customer-hostile outcomes like this, also if you trip some filters not related to sanctions / mistaken identities. There's a recurring theme of HN posts along the lines of "an automated process at Google cut my business off, HN plz help".

Re: The other Sean Byrne doesn't exist

#73

Post by [deleted] »

mproud wrote: post #14
zhivota wrote: post #3

Honestly the best thing to do might be to change your name at this point. I'm glad my name is not common, this kind of issue is going to only get worse in the future.

I get phone calls for a guy named Randy about his business. I can’t for the life of me figure out how to make the phone calls stop. The simplest solution is to change my phone number. But a) why should I have to? it’s my number, dammit! b) how many accounts have 2FA? if I changed my number, what if I miss updating one that’s important? c) it could happen again If I change my number, however, that is the simplest way…

[deleted]

Re: The other Sean Byrne doesn't exist

#74

Post by stevoski »

I once met an Irish person who was detained at Beirut Airport when (trying to) leave the country, and who then disappeared into the Lebanese prison system. Really, he just disappeared.

Luckily he was allowed to make a call just after being detained, to his friend who worked for the British Council in Beirut. The friend was tirelessly in searching for him and seeking his release. It wasn’t easy.

(I met him just after his release, while he was building the courage to try again to leave the country.)

Why was he detained? Because his common Irish first name and common Irish surname matched someone on an Interpol list.

Re: The other Sean Byrne doesn't exist

#75

Post by Aozora7 »

matherial wrote: post #72
Aozora7 wrote: post #26

This is one of the obvious consequences of not having a national identity number assigned to everyone at birth, which exist in most developed countries, except for anglosphere, for some reason.

How so? The article is talking about a fictitious person that's listed by name only on a sanctions list despite the government knowing the person doesn't exist. There is no possibility of the real Sean Byrne presenting a government number that is a negative match against the list because the fake Sean Byrne has no known ID to match against. The essence of the entry is just "here's a name to avoid". The real Sean Byrn…

In this particular case, it would be harder to produce a fake signature from a non-existent person if the signatures in questions were digital and backed by a national identity number. The kind of that I'm submitting when signing documents at work.

Re: The other Sean Byrne doesn't exist

#76

Post by basilikum »

mproud wrote: post #14
zhivota wrote: post #3

Honestly the best thing to do might be to change your name at this point. I'm glad my name is not common, this kind of issue is going to only get worse in the future.

I get phone calls for a guy named Randy about his business. I can’t for the life of me figure out how to make the phone calls stop. The simplest solution is to change my phone number. But a) why should I have to? it’s my number, dammit! b) how many accounts have 2FA? if I changed my number, what if I miss updating one that’s important? c) it could happen again If I change my number, however, that is the simplest way…

2FA over SMS is stupidly bad. It's worse than TOTP in every aspect including this reason. It is also much less secure. You could start switching accounts to TOTP regardless of this and then decide if you want to switch your number later when you have the option.

TOTP is portable and can be backed up.

I went a little bit off on a tangent, the stupidity of SMS 2FA is a pet peeve of mine.

Re: The other Sean Byrne doesn't exist

#77

Post by Macha »

Aozora7 wrote: post #26

This is one of the obvious consequences of not having a national identity number assigned to everyone at birth, which exist in most developed countries, except for anglosphere, for some reason.

Ireland has a PPS number which everyone who’s ever had a job or claimed government benefits has. The union of those sets is basically everyone. Clearly that hasn’t helped.

Re: The other Sean Byrne doesn't exist

#78

Post by basilikum »

kmoser wrote: post #6
zhivota wrote: post #3

Honestly the best thing to do might be to change your name at this point. I'm glad my name is not common, this kind of issue is going to only get worse in the future.

That is trading one problem for another: when the name on your birth certificate doesn't match the name on your government issued ID, certain other government entities tend to deny you services.

In some countries you can get a new birrh certificate with your new name.

Re: The other Sean Byrne doesn't exist

#79

Post by tclancy »

bryanrasmussen wrote: post #11

>The Robert Johnson they kept being confused with wasn’t a man named Robert Johnson. It was a known alias of someone convicted of plotting to bomb a Hindu temple and a cinema in Toronto Also, sold his soul to the devil at a crossroads, so you gotta be careful.

Fellow traveler, my takeaway was that the author didn’t address the elephant in the room, which is that his name is within Soundex/ Levenshtein distance of “Sean Bean” who played a terrorist in Patriot Games, so I chalk this up as another win for our government’s incredibly well-designed security state keeping me safe from imaginary threats. Good reading for today: https://www.theguardian.com/books/ng-interactive/2026/aug/15...

Re: The other Sean Byrne doesn't exist

#80

Post by Cider9986 »

areoform wrote: post #2

Something like this happened to me and it has cost me $20k+ over time, https://areoform.wordpress.com/2021/08/06/on-apples-expanded... Mercury unblocked my accounts because their founder is a very kind man who bothered to verify what the document actually says rather than falling back to, "Computer says no." But everywhere else? De nada. Computer says no. And it's not even me. It's a fuzzy match with someone in their…

>It started rather innocuously. Someone couldn’t send me money.

You need a Monero. It's the only damn cryptocurrency that's used.

https://getmonero.org

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