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Old 02-15-2021, 04:12 AM   #363
Thasaidon
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Join Date: May 2011
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Quote:
Originally Posted by gmw View Post
When there is a feature or benefit that I actually want that requires me to be registered then I consider registering, but when there isn't I don't.

For me it's all part of a general principle of minimal sharing in these situations: do they need to know? (And if they don't need to know then why the <bleeeeeep> are they asking?*) It's like the many and varied places that want your date of birth. Unless there is some strong reason otherwise I don't even bother researching for trust, I just don't give it, and if they insist I lie (it becomes just another "secret" for that site/company like my password).

Maybe this is paranoia, or maybe it's just a matter of trying to maintain habits that are good for security, along with regular backups and not clicking on unsolicited links (unless operating in a sandbox that I do trust).

Speaking of unsolicited links , here's one: Have I Been Pwned in which you can discover if your email address was found in various reported privacy breaches. (If you're concerned about the page, research it independently before using it.) Of course my decades old email address appears many times, but it's reassuring to think that they got minimal useful data other than the email address itself. And keep in mind some of these breeches are big companies - Sony, Adobe - that we'd most likely be incline to trust to at least some extent. The point of a site like that, as far as I am concerned, is to show it is a matter of when, not if, the data you share will be compromised.


* These days the disturbing answer to "why are they asking" is very often: because everyone does it. In theory its used for targeted marketing, but I've seen how this data is most often used in practice and mostly it sits around waiting to be hacked. And anyway, marketing doesn't need a precise date of birth, nor a precise address - age ranges and postcodes are enough for marketing purposes. As for the "security" purpose associated with giving my date of birth ... wait for me to stop choking. When companies learn to ask what they actually need to know for legitimate purposes then I might stop lying to them ... maybe .
That sounds like good sense to me.
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