Not Interested v.2 - Where'd they get my number?
Tyaeda
Published
03/12/2012
Don't ever let anyone tell you you're worthless. Not only is it not a very nice thing to think about yourself, it's just not true. You and I are being sold right now, as you read this. Well our information is anyway.
What was once and still is associated to identity fraud and an utter violation of privacy is happening on a North American wide scale to every single person with either a phone number, email, or home address. Since there isn't much anyone can really do about it, this blog is less advice, and more rant than anything.
Every time a telemarketer calls my house, or I get junk mail addressed to me personally, I get pissed. It angers me because I don't know where that company got my contact information, and I'm likely to never find out. The other day I got some mail from Easy Home (a home furniture and appliance rental company) addressed to my full name and address. Personally, I've never stepped foot in a Easy Home outlet let alone gave anyone from that company my information. Instead I gave my information to another company for what seemed to be legitimate and compulsory reasons, without reading their privacy policy. That company then sold my information (because they weren't satisfied with whatever cash they got from me initially) to god knows how many marketing companies, who then sold it again to Easy Home, and all of the other companies that try and sell me shit.
Lately I've seen stories on the news about how outraged people are with google keeping track of what we search for, for marketing purposes. Since googling has become as important as breathing, understandably people feel as if their privacy is being violated. Yet those same people probably do not think twice about call centers, or junk mail. One of google's many responses to this issue is that we shouldn't be searching for things we're ashamed of. They later limited these "invasions" to people using their google accounts, where they have the option to learn of this practice through their posted (and ever changing) privacy policy. But it's not much different from all of the collecting and sharing of info that you are not aware of. In fact, you should fear less about who knows that you watch midget porn, than who knows your name and where you live.
It's easy to assume that call centers get all of their numbers from the phone book. I wish this were true. When I recently purchased a new home phone number and service I asked to not be registered in the phone book. Did that stop the call centers? Absolutely not. Within a day of activation I was receiving telemarketer calls.
Not too long ago I was at the mall buying a new pair of shoes. I paid for cash as I usually do, so I was surprised when the clerk asked me for my postal code. She didn't ask me if I were interested in anything, just my postal code. I thought, maybe I'm signing up for a store membership where I can get discounts if/when I came back. So I asked what it was for... because she wasn't about to tell me. Apparently I was signing myself up for "special offers from (Company) and our affiliates". I said no, and walked out. Now I can only imagine how many trees would have died for junk mail paper, that would have been sent to my house and thrown out. Worst part is, 3 other clerks asked me for my postal code that day.
Personally I can't think of better business plan. With this you can make money off of people without a) providing them a service b) them knowing exactly what's going on.
Every time I give my name, number, address, or email to anyone I am basically asking to be advertised to. I am basically giving companies that I don't agree with, free money. I am a whore, and capitalism is my pimp.
There's probably a few of you who are wondering why I'm making such a big deal out of this. I know, it's not hard to put paper in a recycling bin, and yes I know that I JUST wrote a blog about how I get rid of telemarketers. The real fact of the matter is, my information is out there, and there is not a damn thing I can do to protect it. It's not so much the marketing companies that I would like to protect myself from either... anyone with enough spare time, and a computer with internet access can become a hacker, and thus an identity thief. Organized crime, such as the Mexican drug cartel is switching over to this less risky, more lucrative crime. They have the money to hire the most bright and talented hacking minds that this world has to offer. Sure, there's a one in a million chance that someone is going to try and buy a million dollar mansion in my name. But seeing as these people can and do take small amounts from tens of thousands of credit cards a day, it's reason enough to be concerned. And yes they can and do use police registries that they've hacked into, to find out where their enemies are living, which are not only rival gang members, but police officers, politicians, and so on.
In this day and age, there is absolutely nothing you can do to completely prevent yourself from appearing in digital form somewhere on the net. You can delete your facebook, disconnect the phone, ask your employer to pay you in cash, or even be homeless, and information on you will still be out there for the taking.
What was once and still is associated to identity fraud and an utter violation of privacy is happening on a North American wide scale to every single person with either a phone number, email, or home address. Since there isn't much anyone can really do about it, this blog is less advice, and more rant than anything.
Every time a telemarketer calls my house, or I get junk mail addressed to me personally, I get pissed. It angers me because I don't know where that company got my contact information, and I'm likely to never find out. The other day I got some mail from Easy Home (a home furniture and appliance rental company) addressed to my full name and address. Personally, I've never stepped foot in a Easy Home outlet let alone gave anyone from that company my information. Instead I gave my information to another company for what seemed to be legitimate and compulsory reasons, without reading their privacy policy. That company then sold my information (because they weren't satisfied with whatever cash they got from me initially) to god knows how many marketing companies, who then sold it again to Easy Home, and all of the other companies that try and sell me shit.
Lately I've seen stories on the news about how outraged people are with google keeping track of what we search for, for marketing purposes. Since googling has become as important as breathing, understandably people feel as if their privacy is being violated. Yet those same people probably do not think twice about call centers, or junk mail. One of google's many responses to this issue is that we shouldn't be searching for things we're ashamed of. They later limited these "invasions" to people using their google accounts, where they have the option to learn of this practice through their posted (and ever changing) privacy policy. But it's not much different from all of the collecting and sharing of info that you are not aware of. In fact, you should fear less about who knows that you watch midget porn, than who knows your name and where you live.
It's easy to assume that call centers get all of their numbers from the phone book. I wish this were true. When I recently purchased a new home phone number and service I asked to not be registered in the phone book. Did that stop the call centers? Absolutely not. Within a day of activation I was receiving telemarketer calls.
Not too long ago I was at the mall buying a new pair of shoes. I paid for cash as I usually do, so I was surprised when the clerk asked me for my postal code. She didn't ask me if I were interested in anything, just my postal code. I thought, maybe I'm signing up for a store membership where I can get discounts if/when I came back. So I asked what it was for... because she wasn't about to tell me. Apparently I was signing myself up for "special offers from (Company) and our affiliates". I said no, and walked out. Now I can only imagine how many trees would have died for junk mail paper, that would have been sent to my house and thrown out. Worst part is, 3 other clerks asked me for my postal code that day.
Personally I can't think of better business plan. With this you can make money off of people without a) providing them a service b) them knowing exactly what's going on.
Every time I give my name, number, address, or email to anyone I am basically asking to be advertised to. I am basically giving companies that I don't agree with, free money. I am a whore, and capitalism is my pimp.
There's probably a few of you who are wondering why I'm making such a big deal out of this. I know, it's not hard to put paper in a recycling bin, and yes I know that I JUST wrote a blog about how I get rid of telemarketers. The real fact of the matter is, my information is out there, and there is not a damn thing I can do to protect it. It's not so much the marketing companies that I would like to protect myself from either... anyone with enough spare time, and a computer with internet access can become a hacker, and thus an identity thief. Organized crime, such as the Mexican drug cartel is switching over to this less risky, more lucrative crime. They have the money to hire the most bright and talented hacking minds that this world has to offer. Sure, there's a one in a million chance that someone is going to try and buy a million dollar mansion in my name. But seeing as these people can and do take small amounts from tens of thousands of credit cards a day, it's reason enough to be concerned. And yes they can and do use police registries that they've hacked into, to find out where their enemies are living, which are not only rival gang members, but police officers, politicians, and so on.
In this day and age, there is absolutely nothing you can do to completely prevent yourself from appearing in digital form somewhere on the net. You can delete your facebook, disconnect the phone, ask your employer to pay you in cash, or even be homeless, and information on you will still be out there for the taking.
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