Listing your name in a phone book

[Asguard]

Bell's comment about being listed in the white pages in the thread about the idiot cop reminded me of something my partner told me a couple of weeks ago. My partner used to work in insurance but they changed the focus of her department into debt recovery.

Anyway they have just changed the computer system over and she noticed that on the automated letters they were sending out it had her full name on it rather than just her first name and title. These aren't internal letters mind you or letters to there clients, these are letters of demand, some being sent to some VERY shady people (for instance the biker who threatened to blow up there office and kill there client if they kept chasing him for the crash he was responsible for, others being sent to house invaders who have been caught and sentenced by the courts etc.).

So she took this to her boss that she wanted her surname removed from the letters or at LEAST changed to a fake name. She explained her reasoning and he said no. His solution, remove your name from the white pages

 

[Pandaemoni]

Bell\\\'s comment about being listed in the white pages in the thread about the idiot cop reminded me of something my partner told me a couple of weeks ago. My partner used to work in insurance but they changed the focus of her department into debt recovery.

Anyway they have just changed the computer system over and she noticed that on the automated letters they were sending out it had her full name on it rather than just her first name and title. These aren\\\'t internal letters mind you or letters to there clients, these are letters of demand, some being sent to some VERY shady people (for instance the biker who threatened to blow up there office and kill there client if they kept chasing him for the crash he was responsible for, others being sent to house invaders who have been caught and sentenced by the courts etc.).

So she took this to her boss that she wanted her surname removed from the letters or at LEAST changed to a fake name. She explained her reasoning and he said no. His solution, remove your name from the white pages

She was obviously being reasonable in her request, as anyone who has her name has multiple ways of learning more about her. These days even if you are not listed in the white pages, odds are some online service still has some information on you (often requiring the payment of a fee, but still...). Not everyone can realistically scrub his or her existence from the face of the internet and doing so is a bit of a hassle given that the use of a pseudonym would more efficiently correct the problem which has her concerned.

In the other case, it is a little odd for anyone to be upset that a cop has obtained information that is freely available to the public, just because he happened to get it from a non-free source. In effect, you cannot reasonably be upset that the cop has your address, you have to be upset only at the way he got it. That is fair enough, but my intuition is that the *real* problem is being annoyed that the cop had the address and send you a note, not the method of getting the address.

 

[steampunk]

There should be laws protecting our identity in our workplace, especially in situations like your partner. It should not stop there. All our cell phone, emails should have the option of total encryption. There should be policies that make it mandatory to provide hardware solutions to computer users that make trojans impossible to become root (very practical idea). We don't have this because we don't value our privacy enough. Not valuing our privacy leaves us open to exploits.

The amount of anonymity we have is proportionate to our security. The government should not be able to spy because we created a policy that say's they can't, we should have the technology to stop it. When they can do it, everyone else else can who take the time to learn how to get in the way they do or a similar way because no security policy really exists that is taken to the level of hardware, where it belongs.

 

[Asguard]

who the hell cares about the government? this is about psychos knowing where we live not the government

 

[steampunk]

Because, if the government has easier access, others can have easier access. Psychos are included in the group others. A good way to stop the psychos, is to prevent the government as well.

I worked as a janitor several years ago and happen to notice that several people in a DA building left passwords right at their desk for NCIC as well other government record data bases. I had no use for such access, and if I did all I would have had to do was memorize. In terms of hacking, things are really just about as wide open as that situation. They don't need to be. The psycho's and financial predators will have access until we change our policy about privacy. Look at Facebook, its' the biggest social site, it brandishes it's disreguard for privacy and use of personal info, yet everyone just keeps using it. Its also not encrypted, so its free game for any hacker who wants to learn.

 

[Bells]

Bell's comment about being listed in the white pages in the thread about the idiot cop reminded me of something my partner told me a couple of weeks ago. My partner used to work in insurance but they changed the focus of her department into debt recovery.

Anyway they have just changed the computer system over and she noticed that on the automated letters they were sending out it had her full name on it rather than just her first name and title. These aren't internal letters mind you or letters to there clients, these are letters of demand, some being sent to some VERY shady people (for instance the biker who threatened to blow up there office and kill there client if they kept chasing him for the crash he was responsible for, others being sent to house invaders who have been caught and sentenced by the courts etc.).

So she took this to her boss that she wanted her surname removed from the letters or at LEAST changed to a fake name. She explained her reasoning and he said no. His solution, remove your name from the white pages

That's interesting.

Where I am employed, they have strict privacy guidelines. The issue with the police officer, which is being discussed in the other thread, if that happened where I work, not only would they have the Federal Police remove you from the building, but you could find yourself facing prosecution as well.

Because of the nature of our work and because we often receive personal threats from clients and customers, we are asked if we want our last name revealed on any document we have to sign or handle. I don't know of a single person who said yes to their last name. Some even use fake names when dealing with certain clients, because some of them are dangerous individuals.

Then again, where I work, a security guard was arrested by the Federal Police for walking through the building after closing hours, and many of us work back late to clear our case logs and he was apparently spotted standing behind one person as she was going through someone's file, which included private information such as their names, address, phone numbers, tax file number, medicare number, etc.. And he apparently stood there for about 2 minutes looking at her screen unbeknownst to her. Someone else spotted him, alerted the lady in question who shut down her screen instantly and filed a report. The next morning, I was at my desk and I saw several Federal Police officers walk past and then a few minutes later, they were escorting him out of the building. It was deemed a privacy breach and there on in, security guards hired by the agency I work for are not allowed to enter past certain points where I work. Even with full security clearance.

Your girlfriend's request is reasonable and not unexpected. I use my middle name on all my documents and never use my last name. On the rare occasions where I have to use a last name (such as filing for certain types of court documents or to issue a notice to prevent someone from travelling, for example), I use my mother's maiden name, which the Government is aware is used solely for work purposes and which means I cannot be tracked at all. I don't even use things like Facebook and the agency I work for demand that if anyone does use Facebook or other such networking sites, the name they used is not connected at all to the name they use while at work.

Your boss forcing your girlfriend to provide her last name on documents is a breach of privacy.

 

[steampunk]

Then again, where I work, a security guard was arrested by the Federal Police for walking through the building after closing hours, and many of us work back late to clear our case logs and he was apparently spotted standing behind one person as she was going through someone's file, which included private information such as their names, address, phone numbers, tax file number, medicare number, etc.. And he apparently stood there for about 2 minutes looking at her screen unbeknownst to her. Someone else spotted him, alerted the lady in question who shut down her screen instantly and filed a report. The next morning, I was at my desk and I saw several Federal Police officers walk past and then a few minutes later, they were escorting him out of the building. It was deemed a privacy breach and there on in, security guards hired by the agency I work for are not allowed to enter past certain points where I work. Even with full security clearance.

What are the chances that he saw the information that he wanted to see, assuming he was even trying to see anything with criminal intent in the first place? He probably was just having one of those duh moments and didn't think about what he was doing. That's a horrible way to treat someone. He would have obviously won the lottery before he saw a record that he personally would have had some connection with.

 

[Asguard]

That's interesting.

Where I am employed, they have strict privacy guidelines. The issue with the police officer, which is being discussed in the other thread, if that happened where I work, not only would they have the Federal Police remove you from the building, but you could find yourself facing prosecution as well.

Because of the nature of our work and because we often receive personal threats from clients and customers, we are asked if we want our last name revealed on any document we have to sign or handle. I don't know of a single person who said yes to their last name. Some even use fake names when dealing with certain clients, because some of them are dangerous individuals.

Then again, where I work, a security guard was arrested by the Federal Police for walking through the building after closing hours, and many of us work back late to clear our case logs and he was apparently spotted standing behind one person as she was going through someone's file, which included private information such as their names, address, phone numbers, tax file number, medicare number, etc.. And he apparently stood there for about 2 minutes looking at her screen unbeknownst to her. Someone else spotted him, alerted the lady in question who shut down her screen instantly and filed a report. The next morning, I was at my desk and I saw several Federal Police officers walk past and then a few minutes later, they were escorting him out of the building. It was deemed a privacy breach and there on in, security guards hired by the agency I work for are not allowed to enter past certain points where I work. Even with full security clearance.

Your girlfriend's request is reasonable and not unexpected. I use my middle name on all my documents and never use my last name. On the rare occasions where I have to use a last name (such as filing for certain types of court documents or to issue a notice to prevent someone from travelling, for example), I use my mother's maiden name, which the Government is aware is used solely for work purposes and which means I cannot be tracked at all. I don't even use things like Facebook and the agency I work for demand that if anyone does use Facebook or other such networking sites, the name they used is not connected at all to the name they use while at work.

Your boss forcing your girlfriend to provide her last name on documents is a breach of privacy.

Exactly, ambos and cops both use first name and payroll number and I cant see why that couldn't be used in this case as well. I have the same problem with St John actually, we are required to put our member number, our FULL name and our signature on the documents and a copy of that goes to the patients. Yet when I was doing placements with the ambulance the first thing that i was told upon arriving at the station was to remove the ID that the uni was making us wear (our student cards with full name and photo), that if I wanted to I could wear it on station but when on the trucks to put it away because the psych patients (or anyone else for that matter) could look me up in the phone book and turn up where I lived. That's as a student paramedic, so the chances of it happening to PB (and myself I might add as we obviously live together and I'm more likely to be home) are much higher. Hell she told me about a memo she got at her previous job where someone fired shots into the office in a different state and that's when she was just doing insurance work.