The future of shopping: customer tracking

[JimC]

We're going to be dealing with this kind of stuff from now on, as technology gets better and better. Having a computer scrub the private data out is all very well, but who oversees the data to ensure it's scrubbed? What are the liability implications of not scrubbing it and a third party getting ahold of the unscrubbed data? Or stealing it before it's scrubbed? This hasn't happened yet I know of, but it's sure to, and liability insurers are sure to take notice after one of them gets burned.

This is all very true, and it's a good reason to secure your privacy when and where you can. I recommend starting with the book "How to be Invisible" by JJ Luna.

My cell phone, for example, is not listed to me. It's owned by an LLC that is owned by another LLC formed in New Mexico, which is the only state that does not require the owners or managers of an LLC to be identified in the state records. I have a registered agent in NM who keeps it legal and sends me stuff as needed, but even she does not know my real name, she knows only my pen-name and the address she sends stuff to is a "ghost address" located more than 200 miles from where I live. I have a friend collect the mail from the secure mailbox and send it to me at regular intervals, and I pay for my service with a debit card on a bank account for the second-level LLC.

I never, ever reveal my actual street residence address to anyone, and I pick up my mail at a post office miles from where I actually live. All service calls and utilities are paid for by the LLC, and I have UPS and FedEx packages delivered to a friend's house miles away from my actual home. I never, ever order pizza or any other deliveries to my door, and I even managed to escape the Census takers, so even they don't know where I live.

My vehicles are all registered to an LLC in Montana, which has very amenable tax and registration laws, and that LLC is also owned by the NM LLC, so there is no direct link from my license plates to my real name. I keep a "letter of authorization" in my vehicles to give to police if I get stopped that is issued by my pen-name on behalf of the LLC.

My driver's license address is listed as the ghost address 200 miles away.

My internet service is through the LLC stack as well, so my real name is never attached to that.

Took a few years and some real research to identify all the links that tied me to my ranch address and break them, so when I moved, it completed the severing of my old persona from my physical location. I was aghast when I started making a bubble-diagram of all the people and organizations who knew who I was and where I lived...there were more than a hundred...as a part of analyzing my privacy.

Now the only people who know where I live under my real name are my family and close friends.

Hard to do at first, and hard to maintain, given how carefully trained Americans are to simply give out personal information at the drop of a hat (why the hell does my hair stylist need to know my address and phone number, all I want is a stinking haircut...) without even thinking about it.

That's the hardest thing to overcome, learning to keep your yap shut when someone asks a rude or intrusive question...like the guy at the men's clothing store did today when he asked "So, what do you do for a living." My answer was, "......" accompanied by a stone-faced glare. He eventually got the message that he should STFU and ring up my purchase before I decided to walk out of the store.

Difficult, but worth it.

Yeah, but it's not paranoia when they're really after you...

It's those pesky fucking black helicopters, again, bothering our poor Seth...

[maiforpeace]

We're going to be dealing with this kind of stuff from now on, as technology gets better and better. Having a computer scrub the private data out is all very well, but who oversees the data to ensure it's scrubbed? What are the liability implications of not scrubbing it and a third party getting ahold of the unscrubbed data? Or stealing it before it's scrubbed? This hasn't happened yet I know of, but it's sure to, and liability insurers are sure to take notice after one of them gets burned.

This is all very true, and it's a good reason to secure your privacy when and where you can. I recommend starting with the book "How to be Invisible" by JJ Luna.

My cell phone, for example, is not listed to me. It's owned by an LLC that is owned by another LLC formed in New Mexico, which is the only state that does not require the owners or managers of an LLC to be identified in the state records. I have a registered agent in NM who keeps it legal and sends me stuff as needed, but even she does not know my real name, she knows only my pen-name and the address she sends stuff to is a "ghost address" located more than 200 miles from where I live. I have a friend collect the mail from the secure mailbox and send it to me at regular intervals, and I pay for my service with a debit card on a bank account for the second-level LLC.

I never, ever reveal my actual street residence address to anyone, and I pick up my mail at a post office miles from where I actually live. All service calls and utilities are paid for by the LLC, and I have UPS and FedEx packages delivered to a friend's house miles away from my actual home. I never, ever order pizza or any other deliveries to my door, and I even managed to escape the Census takers, so even they don't know where I live.

My vehicles are all registered to an LLC in Montana, which has very amenable tax and registration laws, and that LLC is also owned by the NM LLC, so there is no direct link from my license plates to my real name. I keep a "letter of authorization" in my vehicles to give to police if I get stopped that is issued by my pen-name on behalf of the LLC.

My driver's license address is listed as the ghost address 200 miles away.

My internet service is through the LLC stack as well, so my real name is never attached to that.

Took a few years and some real research to identify all the links that tied me to my ranch address and break them, so when I moved, it completed the severing of my old persona from my physical location. I was aghast when I started making a bubble-diagram of all the people and organizations who knew who I was and where I lived...there were more than a hundred...as a part of analyzing my privacy.

Now the only people who know where I live under my real name are my family and close friends.

Hard to do at first, and hard to maintain, given how carefully trained Americans are to simply give out personal information at the drop of a hat (why the hell does my hair stylist need to know my address and phone number, all I want is a stinking haircut...) without even thinking about it.

That's the hardest thing to overcome, learning to keep your yap shut when someone asks a rude or intrusive question...like the guy at the men's clothing store did today when he asked "So, what do you do for a living." My answer was, "......" accompanied by a stone-faced glare. He eventually got the message that he should STFU and ring up my purchase before I decided to walk out of the store.

Difficult, but worth it.

Yeah, but it's not paranoia when they're really after you...

[Seth]

It's those pesky fucking black helicopters, again, bothering our poor Seth...

They aren't actually black, they are very dark green, and they flew over the ranch nearly every year looking for pot growing along the creek, until our local Sheriff quit the Metro Drug Task Force and declined to participate in the program that was supported with Army National Guard helicopters. In one case they hovered less than 50 feet over my house for an extended period while trying to see if there was pot being grown in the solar greenhouse attached to the house.

In 2009, despite being out of the program, some Denver detectives from the Task Force flying in a NG chopper persuaded the pilot to go outside of their lawful boundaries into Boulder County to fly over my ranch. They evidently found some ditch weed in one of the remote pastures and spent more than an hour hovering below treetop level within a hundred yards of an endangered bald eagle nest while they contacted the local Sheriff to come and pull it up.

They all got reprimanded by their commanding General for doing so, after I complained and so did the Sheriff, who knew full well that he and his deputies were welcome to come out and root out any ditch weed any time they wanted to do so. All they had to do was call me and I'd go with them and help, an arrangement I'd had with the Sheriff for nearly a decade.

[JimC]

Fair enough, mate, I'd be pissed off in those circumstances myself...

[Schneibster]

We're going to be dealing with this kind of stuff from now on, as technology gets better and better. Having a computer scrub the private data out is all very well, but who oversees the data to ensure it's scrubbed? What are the liability implications of not scrubbing it and a third party getting ahold of the unscrubbed data? Or stealing it before it's scrubbed? This hasn't happened yet I know of, but it's sure to, and liability insurers are sure to take notice after one of them gets burned.

This is all very true, and it's a good reason to secure your privacy when and where you can. I recommend starting with the book "How to be Invisible" by JJ Luna.

That's an awful lot of effort unless you're a drug dealer.

[Coito ergo sum]

What I particularly hate are cold calls, wanting me to buy some crap, or from fucking call centres...

Just tell them to hold on a second, hit the button to click over to another line, and leave them there.

[/quote]

[JimC]

What I particularly hate are cold calls, wanting me to buy some crap, or from fucking call centres...

Just tell them to hold on a second, hit the button to click over to another line, and leave them there.

[/quote]

When they call, my wife sometimes says "hold the line, please, I'll be back in a moment". She puts the phone down, and ignores it. That is evil...

[Seth]

What I particularly hate are cold calls, wanting me to buy some crap, or from fucking call centres...

Just tell them to hold on a second, hit the button to click over to another line, and leave them there.

When they call, my wife sometimes says "hold the line, please, I'll be back in a moment". She puts the phone down, and ignores it. That is evil... [/quote]

If I have time, I like to pimp the by showing interest and asking many detailed questions so as to take up as much of their time as possible and waste it, since they get hammered if they don't close a sales call after spending a half-hour on the line with someone.
Then when I'm fed up, I reveal the scam and tell them I had no intention of buying anything at all.

Of course, I never get such calls because I have no home phone, only my cell phone.