Re: OT: The surveillance society; there's nothing new under the sun

In message <h2fqe59apcnumdhn05jmov0po2esd49uk4@xxxxxxx>, Jo Lonergan <jolonergan@xxxxxxxxxxx> writes:
[]
My name is slightly mis-spelt in the phone directory, and I've left it like that
so that I can see where people have got my address from. Most paper spam is
obviously sent using Swisscom's data.

I sometimes do something not dissimilar when putting my email on a form I think might spam me, or sell it on: since a Demon account can have whatever you like before the @ (same applies to Freeserve/Wanadoo/Orange accounts, and those of several other ISPs - basically, if your email is of the form yourname@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx [xyz being .co.uk, .com, .net or whatever]), and it'll still get through, I sometimes put something before the @ which I can identify as the company I'm talking to, rather than my usual G6JPG. Having said that, I can't think of ever having received spam addressed to one of these, so the amount of selling-on of email addresses might be less than we think.

What I do think is intrusive is that when you search the online phone directory
the immediate results include a map showing where you live. And you can search

The BT one gives at least the postcode, which is enough to get you a map via Google and the rest. (Actually I think the BT one might have a link to a map too.)

by first name, or first name and town or canton, which is sort of OK if your
first name is Heidi, but makes it rather too easy to locate, for instance, Ralph
or me.

Why does the name Heidi - and, particularly, the thought of there being lots of them - make me smile?
--
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/<1985 MB++G.5AL-IS-P--Ch++(p)Ar@T0H+Sh0!:`)DNAf
** http://www.soft255.demon.co.uk/G6JPG-PC/JPGminPC.htm for ludicrously
outdated thoughts on PCs. **

"I'm a self-made man, but I think if I had to do it over again, I'd call in
someone else." - Roland Young
.

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