internet privacy - phone number - personal checks

[johnlvs2run]

Despite efforts to keep my personal information off the internet, there are an increasing number of sites that routinely publish my name, address, personal unlisted telephone number, and a large map to my house. Most of the sites do not have any means of having the information corrected or removed. I contacted a state agency that lists my name, business, and home address on their site. Their reply was that this was public information and could not be removed. Considering these things, I'd like to share and get ideas on what can be done to limit the transgressions.

EMAIL ADDRESS: For business reasons, I mistakenly had my name on my email address but have now changed this to a nonsense alias. This was relatively easy to do online with verizon.

PHONE NUMBER: I have had the same unlisted phone number for quite a long time, am on the state and national do not call lists, but still 9 out of 10 calls to my home are solicitations from people I don't know. Many of them call over and over and over and over again. Whatever I have said to them has made no difference, they keep calling. I am planning to change my phone number this fall.

TELEPHONE: I would like to get away from the verizon land line as it sucks. I used a magicjack for two years but it doesn't work on this linux computer. I would like to get a dedicated mini computer, along with naked dsl, run the magicjack on that and get rid of the land line forever. Verizon wants to charge as much as the current phone fee for naked dsl, so I hope to find it somewhere else.

PERSONAL CHECKS: It is time to recorder so I'd like to pare them down to almost nothing. I have mistakenly had my phone number on personal checks and was planning to remove it. But information on a link said to put a fake number instead, otherwise places will keep asking for the number anyway and then write it on the check. There is no reason for them to have my phone number, so I think that's a good idea. Sometimes stores have asked for my phone number at the register (even when it's on the checks). I could give them the same fake phone number.

ADDRESS: It would be great to remove my address from the checks, but most stores require an address. I would like some suggestions about this. Maybe there is no alternative, except to keep the address as bare as possible. My aim is to avoid any expense of paying for an additional address. I considered to put the bank's address on the checks.

NAME: Instead of my full name, I am considering to put just my initial and last name on the checks. Another alternative would be to put Smith & Jones, for example my last name and the last name of a friend. I wonder if that would be okay? If so, I'll do that.

800 NUMBERS: Any 800 number can pick up the incoming number and then add it to a list. I did not know about that. I will use a calling card if/when calling any 800 numbers.

BOGUS INFORMATION: It would be nice to infiltrate the information mongers and toss some misinformation into their works. Any ideas about doing that, let me know. I did successfully change my name in a facebook account, to a nonsensical name.

[zusn]

BOGUS INFORMATION: It would be nice to infiltrate the information mongers and toss some misinformation into their works. Any ideas about doing that, let me know. I did successfully change my name in a facebook account, to a nonsensical name.
When I fill stuff out, I intentionally misspell my last name. (or sometimes I'm a Dr, or Mrs (even though I'm a guy)) I like to see who "shares" information.

I figure that I can't hide info from the system, so I might as well fill it with crap.

[General of Darkness]

I don't mean to sound like a jerk, but I don't think there's a real way around it. Unless you can do EVERYTHING cash. Just saying.

[Phoenix]

Despite efforts to keep my personal information off the internet, there are an increasing number of sites that routinely publish my name, address, personal unlisted telephone number, and a large map to my house. Most of the sites do not have any means of having the information corrected or removed. I contacted a state agency that lists my name, business, and home address on their site. Their reply was that this was public information and could not be removed. Considering these things, I'd like to share and get ideas on what can be done to limit the transgressions.

EMAIL ADDRESS: For business reasons, I mistakenly had my name on my email address but have now changed this to a nonsense alias. This was relatively easy to do online with verizon.


If anyone wants to do this, but is having trouble, PM me, and I'll help.




PHONE NUMBER: I have had the same unlisted phone number for quite a long time, am on the state and national do not call lists, but still 9 out of 10 calls to my home are solicitations from people I don't know. Many of them call over and over and over and over again. Whatever I have said to them has made no difference, they keep calling. I am planning to change my phone number this fall.


Telemarketers often just obtain "blocks" of numbers issued to CLECs, and call every one of them, yours included. Most don't care about the "Do Not Call" list, since the FCC doesn't really enforce it (I've filed complaints, and was told they were going to do nothing).

Do you have anonymous call rejection? That might help with some.




TELEPHONE: I would like to get away from the verizon land line as it sucks. I used a magicjack for two years but it doesn't work on this linux computer. I would like to get a dedicated mini computer, along with naked dsl, run the magicjack on that and get rid of the land line forever. Verizon wants to charge as much as the current phone fee for naked dsl, so I hope to find it somewhere else.


We have two Magic Jacks, but they're not dependable enough to solely rely on. Great for routine calls, but I wouldn't trust it for critical business or emergency calls. I have AT&T's highest speed DSL, and MJ still drops out on me on occasion.




PERSONAL CHECKS: It is time to recorder so I'd like to pare them down to almost nothing. I have mistakenly had my phone number on personal checks and was planning to remove it. But information on a link said to put a fake number instead, otherwise places will keep asking for the number anyway and then write it on the check. There is no reason for them to have my phone number, so I think that's a good idea. Sometimes stores have asked for my phone number at the register (even when it's on the checks). I could give them the same fake phone number.


Put your current phone number on them, and then do the phone number change. "Plausible deniability." "So sorry, forgot to give you the new one," in case you're "caught."




ADDRESS: It would be great to remove my address from the checks, but most stores require an address. I would like some suggestions about this. Maybe there is no alternative, except to keep the address as bare as possible. My aim is to avoid any expense of paying for an additional address. I considered to put the bank's address on the checks.


Ditch the checks. ALL checks are run as electronic debits nowadays. If you don't want to use cash, use a Debit card. Both checks and Debit cards are tracked.




NAME: Instead of my full name, I am considering to put just my initial and last name on the checks. Another alternative would be to put Smith & Jones, for example my last name and the last name of a friend. I wonder if that would be okay? If so, I'll do that.


See above.




800 NUMBERS: Any 800 number can pick up the incoming number and then add it to a list. I did not know about that. I will use a calling card if/when calling any 800 numbers.


Use Yahoo! Messenger. You can call 800 numbers for free, and they get a gateway callback number, not your own.




BOGUS INFORMATION: It would be nice to infiltrate the information mongers and toss some misinformation into their works. Any ideas about doing that, let me know. I did successfully change my name in a facebook account, to a nonsensical name.


Online surveys are quite fun. ;D So are "club" cards...put the store's address & phone number down.

[Ponce]

Zusn? that's what I do, I use a certain letter for my middle initial and when ever I see it it goes in the trash can without being open.......it works.

[zusn]

Zusn? that's what I do, I use a certain letter for my middle initial and when ever I see it it goes in the trash can without being open.......it works.
Great minds think alike! ;D

[Glass]

It is difficult. One leak of one piece of information and it can snowball. Many of the people I mix with will ask permission to a) store your phone number and b) check with you first before giving your number to someone else. Now that is a small sub group of people who I know directly but a couple hundred by six degrees. In some circles it is the norm. In others you have to be ever vigilant not to get snapped and facebooked by someone at a gathering. I regularly instruct people not to keep an image or post it on one of those things. You have to be alert.

I use a postal box for all non essential correspondence. I think Govt is still unable to sell your info here but some corporations are. I use a commercial office number with a redirect for all requests for a number. I can take a call or message it for later. There is nothing else listed anywhere that I know off. I don't give anyone anything and I demand they state who they are and what their business is before I'll tell them even who I am.

I get no sales calls. ZERO. I know that when I pick up the phone the caller is someone I know because only I gave them that line. I have been fortunate some how I think. I did have a friend call me on that line and found out he got it from family. Shut that down easily enough. Its possible have fallen into some kind of crack in the system. I do get bills so there must be something out there. I did get a service call to make sure the line was working. No outbound calls on the line. Caller thought maybe it was faulty? s'alright.

Work gets a couple calls but all about the same products. After a while of these calls I determined that several of them were the same call centre calling multiple times under competing names. Same product types. Took a few well placed faxes to kill about 80% of the calls. Cease and Desist notices. Stern words etc. Have to pinpoint who the actual company that does the calling is. Not the ones they represent.

[BabushkaLady]

The best privacy advice I can give you won't be cheap or easy--but it can be achieved.

Problems with your home address, maps and databases: Move and Never give out your "home" address again. Have your utilities in someone else's name at the new place. No mail with your name to the new address. Nothing. Ever.

Email and phone info: Drop the current ones and set up new pre-paid cell phones. Don't give it out unless absolutely necessary. Have several for different levels of contact. Businesses, Acquaintances, Personal.

Mail: Use an alternate address. There are many, many ways to do this. Never ever put in a forwarding change of address with the post office. Keep a pile of your mail envelopes for a month, then go through the "must notify" ones and change just those addresses. While you have those companies on the phone also "opt out" of everything you can. All mailings, sharings, marketing programs. This can be done with 99.9% success.

Checks should only be used to mail a few bills. Do not use them in stores! You can have initials on your checks or anything you want. Keep it minimal. The IRS even takes checks with just a few initials, use the Memo line to put the important stuff. Obviously cash is always best for purchases in person. For true privacy you can't use the internet for purchases. There are ways around this, but I don't even bother.

Database designers can take multiple "similar" identities and make assumptions to merge into "your" information. This goes on all the time. People that are getting creative usually revert to a few basic "known" items like their true birthdate, first initial and last name, etc. Best thing to do is create a dead end. Then start out fresh. You will still be "legal", just more difficult to locate.

[gunDriller]

one of the best solutions for Telemarketers is to answer the phone tentatively, as if you were the butler. "Hello ? May I say who is calling ?" then tell them you're going to get whoever.

then you put the phone down, and they burn 5 minutes until they realize they've been burned.

just don't forget to come back 10 minutes later & hang it up !

[Andy9999]

Despite efforts to keep my personal information off the internet, there are an increasing number of sites that routinely publish my name, address, personal unlisted telephone number, and a large map to my house. Most of the sites do not have any means of having the information corrected or removed. I contacted a state agency that lists my name, business, and home address on their site. Their reply was that this was public information and could not be removed. Considering these things, I'd like to share and get ideas on what can be done to limit the transgressions.



Collect theirs personal/public info and publish all over the internet
Let's get all politicians "private /public info,their houses -these hidden ones/secret ,and publish,pictures of their properties,grandkids and see if they will like it ...or maybe they will do something about it

[Phoenix]

one of the best solutions for Telemarketers is to answer the phone tentatively, as if you were the butler. "Hello ? May I say who is calling ?" then tell them you're going to get whoever.

then you put the phone down, and they burn 5 minutes until they realize they've been burned.

just don't forget to come back 10 minutes later & hang it up !


If you don't, the very loud rapid busy will remind you!

[Phoenix]

hit *67 before you dial a number to hide your own telephone number


This DOES NOT WORK for 800 numbers.