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A Web Site Mysteriously Knows Who I Am & Details About My Last Visit. Scary!
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<blockquote data-quote="MacInWin" data-source="post: 1836693" data-attributes="member: 396914"><p>Ian, it has to be somewhere. Somewhere in the internet her name is associated with that number. Some friend she trusted with the number, some place he trusted to have that number, maybe the AT&T account, bank, anywhere. They don't make this stuff up out of thin air. He says he's texted her, that could be the link. Could be their network service, or whatever the phone is linked to. Assuming she has ever travelled out of the home with the phone, it could be that she connected to a non-AT&T tower and the phone was listed. And even if she hasn't, if the nearest tower has ever had an issue and the phone connected through a different tower, that could be it. Or if her phone ever connected to the WiFi in the house. The situation described by Paul is simply impossible. There was, or is, some link between her name and that number, otherwise the texts are not possible. Something he and/or she has long forgotten that they did, but the internet never forgets. And the phone OS is Android, so it's reporting to the mothership everything ever done on that phone. Put together that he has texted and called her, Google knows that (through Android), and Google knows he is married to her (public record). And if he has an Android phone, too, Google knows who is in his contacts, including maybe her. Not much to deduce that this phone is for her, and even if it's for him, no harm in selling the information to health care providers as if it were hers. They send a text using the name for her they have on record, kind of like getting junk mail (which I did when I got to that point myself, way back when). Birth records are public, so every person getting into the age window for Medicare gets contacted. Bingo...she gets email that looks like it's to her, when it's a fishing expedition based on the logic Google had. </p><p></p><p>It doesn't take much to build a profile.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="MacInWin, post: 1836693, member: 396914"] Ian, it has to be somewhere. Somewhere in the internet her name is associated with that number. Some friend she trusted with the number, some place he trusted to have that number, maybe the AT&T account, bank, anywhere. They don't make this stuff up out of thin air. He says he's texted her, that could be the link. Could be their network service, or whatever the phone is linked to. Assuming she has ever travelled out of the home with the phone, it could be that she connected to a non-AT&T tower and the phone was listed. And even if she hasn't, if the nearest tower has ever had an issue and the phone connected through a different tower, that could be it. Or if her phone ever connected to the WiFi in the house. The situation described by Paul is simply impossible. There was, or is, some link between her name and that number, otherwise the texts are not possible. Something he and/or she has long forgotten that they did, but the internet never forgets. And the phone OS is Android, so it's reporting to the mothership everything ever done on that phone. Put together that he has texted and called her, Google knows that (through Android), and Google knows he is married to her (public record). And if he has an Android phone, too, Google knows who is in his contacts, including maybe her. Not much to deduce that this phone is for her, and even if it's for him, no harm in selling the information to health care providers as if it were hers. They send a text using the name for her they have on record, kind of like getting junk mail (which I did when I got to that point myself, way back when). Birth records are public, so every person getting into the age window for Medicare gets contacted. Bingo...she gets email that looks like it's to her, when it's a fishing expedition based on the logic Google had. It doesn't take much to build a profile. [/QUOTE]
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A Web Site Mysteriously Knows Who I Am & Details About My Last Visit. Scary!
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