very likely.

* aka republican Draft-Dodger-in-Chief

go everything you do.

I remember in the 80's a friend of mine was building a data base like that. The idea was how to get your hands on data. That's when stores were handing out memberships so they could capture you buying habits.

the phone number off the checks and resale them for a penny or so to data places.

Now I would imagine that UPS and Fedex are selling the whole shipping label to data brokers. Makes it easy to keep up with where people move.

and the blood of a virgin unicorn puppy

every time my data has been hacked/exposed/leaked IT WAS NOT
* because I opened an email I shouldn't have
* because my password wasn't strong enough
* because i gave my credit card to hackers
* because I was loosy-goosy with my personal information

IT WAS
* because the state of South Carolina lost my information to hackers
* because Washington STate Universtion lost my information to hackers
* because Wells Fargo lost my information to hackers
* because Target lost my information to hackers
* because my employer lost my information to hackers
* because my hospital lost my information to hackers
* because my husband's employer lost my information to hackers

NEVER was it because of *MY* lack of prudent use of personal information.

Yet -- we're always bombarded with how we're all dunderhead with "password" as our password. Yet every. single. security breach that has occured in my life (and there have been several, as listed above) has been because OF ANOTHER COMPANY'S lack of security regarding my personal data. I have so many lock-downs and life-time credit monitoring and all that happy horse-shit (useless, of course). NEVER because I was wontonly giving out my SS and Credit card and DOB.

yet consumers are always portrayed as the stupid, idiotic victims. When will these companies be held responsible? Oh, the year 30never. Here, here's another lifetime of MORE credit monitoring. That can go along with the other 30 lifetimes of lifetime credit monitoring I and my husband ALREADY have from the 2 high level breaches we underwent about 5 years ago.

I work with confidential data for a living, so I am very careful about choosing tough passwords. But if some dipshit in a "trusted security firm" leaves my personal information on an unsecured flash drive in a Starbucks, I'm screwn.

and also dealt with confidential data, and there is definitely a problem out there with 3rd parties "accidentally leaving a thumb drive on the seat of a plane" or having a government-issued laptop with data "stolen from their car".

.


Remember, don't print it out anywhere. You must commit it to memory.




.

that all require these ridiculous usernames/passwords
that all have different requirements (first.last, firstlast, first.lastnumber, employeeID, part of employeeID.last, randomly generated number, etc), (Upper, Lower, Number, Special characters; Upper, Lower, Number, no special; Upper, Lower, Number, SPecial but only from this approved list)
that all change in different intervals (Every 30 days, every 60 days, every 90 days)
(can't use any password that starts with a number, can't use password with consecutive letters, can't use password with consecutive numbers, can't use password that contains your user ID or employer ID or any part of your first or last name, can't be any iteration of a pword you've used in the last 10 iterations of a password)
And I promise, I'm not exaggerating when I say these are the rules. And you have to remember them....for each database/program/whatever or you.are.fucked. omg......don't try to call IT to have them help you reset that fucking password. They will SET. YOU. ON. FIRE.

And WHATEVER you do, don't make it easy to guess. EVER.

DONT WRITE THEM DOWN!!!

well how the FUCK am I supposed to know WHAT the last 10 passwords I've used? Because it can't be easy to guess. And it can't be anything remotely normal
oh...here's the suggestion: "come up with a completely random sentence that makes no sense to you or anyone else. like: I love to eat peanut butter cookies. Now, add symbols:
I LI*32$@)%B*00+{3$. Oh wait. that password system doesn't accept }'s. fuck. And did I use a % for the P? where's the lower case?. FUCK. I have to write this down. Goddamn it I actually HATE peanutbutter cookies. THis sucks.

so what the fuck does everyone do?

writes it the fuck down.

I work from home, which makes it a little bit different of a setting than an office setting, in that there's no one here but us chickens, I'm on a VPN (when working), but it's just ridiculous. PEOPLE WILL WRITE THIS DOWN.

OH....and then when they have to do a totally rando server reset -- oh yeah, gotta reset EVERYTHING. And can't use any pword youv'e used in the last 10 times....and don't write it down.

so who has our info?

It is a MARKETING CORPORATION. The only "breach" here is that someone got this info without paying for it. Boo-hoo. (or should I say womp-womp?)

Nothing I can do about my info being now routinely stolen. Happening too often.
So I address the other end of the problem, by reducing the marketing value of my name as much as possible.
This has been a serious issue with me for ages, I am quite determined about my privacy.

We get very little junk mail, mostly from AARP and the local State Farm guy, because we don't use catalogs. Mostly bills in the mail.
I do collect mail for a couple of my neighbors when they go on trips, they have HUGE amounts of junk mail.

The dog has/had his own membership cards at the stores that require them, they never look to see whose name/address you put down, just that you have a number.
I use cash for most local shopping, instead of the traceable debit card. One of our grocery stops has a lil bank in the store. I debit cash from them, to shop with. barely any effort at all.

We use vpn for internet roaming.
No tv, can't stand the ads, can't stand the crap all over the real estate of the screen when it is on.
So we see little of that precious targeted advertsiing except for local stores which send mail to "Occupant"in the weekly circulars.

Robo calls on the landline are an irritant, but the answering machine picks up on all calls first.

here's a trick about getting a "not you" phone number on a landline: they will be too happy to charge you more and more for an unlisted number, but they will accept putting a different name on the number in the directory.
You have to keep your real name on the account, but our landline is in Mr. Dixie's name, so I am fine with that.
Usually I have put the name of our cat, Murphy, for directory listing. ( RIP)