So much for the security of your personal information

 

Self-described "counter-violence specialist" and security consultant Darren Friesen recently conducted an impromptu experiment.  The results were startling.

So, here’s a social experiment I tried this morning. I decided to see just how much information I could find out on a random person. As the car in front of me had some interesting bumper stickers, I picked it. I did not see the driver whatsoever and only recouped the license plate. That was all the info I had to go on other than what was visual about the car and inside within eyesight.

Here’s what I found.

Through the National Registry, I found out the owner of the car, the make, model, year purchased, how paid. I found out his personal identification number, his mother’s maiden name, his married status (divorced), ex-wife’s name, and nationality. I already know that, since his license plate number ends in 3, that he's not allowed driving within city limits on Tuesdays due to the weekly vehicle-usage restrictions so I'll know when his car's at home unattended and when he'll be travelling by other means.

From there I searched him out on social media. I found pics of him, his girlfriend, and his children ... I found out the general area where they live and the exact areas where they go back-and-forth from points of work. I found both cell numbers and the company they’re subcontracted by, including their own offshoot companies.

From here I found him on a heritage/geneology site and, not wanting to open an actual account and pay money, I went the general synopsis route and scraped together info stumbled across pertaining to his family tree ... Had I paid for site-entry, I would’ve found out his last 2 known addresses for census and voting purposes, likely opening the door to find his new and current residency, had I been inclined and motivated.

So, what’s the point of all this? It took me one hour. From someone who’s generally quite guarded and has a restricted online profile, who pays attention to behavioral issues, who blocked out his personal information, children’s identities, and restricted his content. One hour. From a license plate number. Don’t think that total strangers can’t find out a ton about you that you don’t think they can, in a minimal amount of time, with the smallest of information. Orwell was onto something…

There's more at the link.

Most of us aren't interesting enough to others for them to want to investigate us to that extent:  but some of us are.  This experiment should come as a wake-up call to us.  In our electronic, digital age, it's virtually impossible to maintain effective privacy and keep our personal information secure.  It's not completely impossible, but it is very difficult, and it's likely to be very expensive.  (That's how some security companies and specialists make their living, by providing such services.  I know people who use them, and they're getting what they're paying for - but they all, without exception, complain about the loss of personal privacy to those they are paying.  To stop others ferreting out information, they have to reveal all that information to those who are safeguarding it, and be prepared for intrusiveness in the name of security on a scale that most of us wouldn't tolerate.)

This is also food for thought to those who are vocal in their opposition to the electoral fraud that stole last November's elections in this country.  Those who want to silence us can get at all this sort of information and more, particularly since they're likely to have access to (corrupted) official resources.  They won't be afraid to use it, either, spreading disinformation and rumors and innuendo about us to their media allies, or putting pressure on us by threatening to reveal things we'd rather keep confidential.

I'm old enough and I've experienced enough that I know what to expect.  However, if you have a lot to lose - and a family that has much to lose - you might want to think about that before you get too involved.  There will probably be a price to be paid for speaking the truth, as those trying to hide it try to crack down on those revealing it.  Are you ready, willing and able to pay it?  Are you quite sure about that?

Peter

(EDITED TO ADD:  The link to the source Web site appears to be down at the time of writing this, with an "Under Construction" notice popping up.  The Web site is in a South American country, so bandwidth from the USA may be an issue if a lot of my readers are suddenly clicking through.  Try again later if necessary.)