# Privacy Issues



## Barliman Butterbur (Apr 8, 2013)

It's been a long time since I have had to establish a new email address. I have them on Lycos (which I virtually never use any more) and Gmail, as well as Earthlink. The other day I decided to update my TTF email address at Lycos. When I tried to access it, _they wanted my cell phone number!_ Not only that, but they send a text message to it for verification — _which I have to pay for!_ Outrageous!!! :*mad: Hey, it's none of their damned business what my cell phone number is! It seems that my oh-so-innocent and naïve concepts have been burst: I once thought that as the Internet grew in population, it would be harder and harder to trace down people simply because of the sheer numbers involved. 

Alas — I discovered I have a *huge* footprint on the Internet! So much so that I subscribe to Reputation.com to reduce its size and keep me off the grid as much as possible. Through Reputation.com I discovered that I was in countless directories, search engines, and in all sorts of places I'd never even heard of! Posts that go back to the 90s! And then of course there are Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin (none of which I subscribe to) and God knows howevermany more of them there are.

Truly disgusting, sez this old curmudgeon (the word I _would_ have chosen was redacted by Robocensor) who values his privacy! :*mad: What say the rest of you?

Barley

PS: I have established a new email address to receive messages from you. Use the usual way to email me from within the TTF site (clicking on my name next to my avatar). Thanks. :*)


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## Erestor Arcamen (Apr 8, 2013)

Barliman Butterbur said:


> It's been a long time since I have had to establish a new email address. I have them on Lycos (which I virtually never use any more) and Gmail, as well as Earthlink. The other day I decided to update my TTF email address at Lycos. When I tried to access it, _they wanted my cell phone number!_ Not only that, but they send a text message to it for verification — _which I have to pay for!_ Outrageous!!! :*mad: Hey, it's none of their damned business what my cell phone number is! It seems that my oh-so-innocent and naïve concepts have been burst: I once thought that as the Internet grew in population, it would be harder and harder to trace down people simply because of the sheer numbers involved.
> 
> Alas — I discovered I have a *huge* footprint on the Internet! So much so that I subscribe to Reputation.com to reduce its size and keep me off the grid as much as possible. Through Reputation.com I discovered that I was in countless directories, search engines, and in all sorts of places I'd never even heard of! Posts that go back to the 90s! And then of course there are Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin (none of which I subscribe to) and God knows howevermany more of them there are.
> 
> ...



I agree, it is VERY scary out there for those of us of all ages. Just a search of one of my various pseudonyms that I use online brings up a plethora of websites I've never heard of, all of which know my first and last name, my age, where I live (town, not home address thank goodness) and the names and above mentioned information of my relatives and friends. I have been able to get that info removed from a few sites but for others it is nearly impossible. 
If it wasn't for Spam filtering in gmail and my other various email addresses, I think I would go mad! I've thought looking into reputation.com because I would prefer my private life and information to stay just that, private. Google and others make so many billions of dollars every year (more than I'll own in my lifetime I'm sure) that they than afford to drop a few more people, namely me, off their grid I hope. Welcome back btw Barley!


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## Halasían (Apr 11, 2013)

I find it funny in an ironic way that reputation.com wants you to create an account and asks for information to do a "free" scan, then gives a little possible information that may be yours, then wants to charge you to "remove" it. Of course, you have to give your credit card or paypal details. So in hopes of removing some of your data on the net, you have to give data about yourself and finances to do it.

Simple rule... if you put it on the internet anywhere at anytime, consider it public information. For starters, the best way to drop off the grid is to drop off the internet.

Oh yeah, the next day, I get an email saying reputation.com want to talk to me and want my phone number.


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## Prince of Cats (Apr 23, 2013)

Your email service provider is actually protecting your privacy by implementing out of band verification to help prevent people other than yourself from modifying your account. If you desire a semblance of true privacy you have to use "underground" tools and networks with a new personality unfortunately


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