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peppermintvalet t1_itwhs0r wrote

Someone posted a wedding picture in front of a courthouse sign with their new last name on a poster. Someone found their home address in about two minutes. And they only did it to warn the couple. Imagine if they were malicious.

Just don't do it.

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Ok-Tip9528 t1_ity8dtn wrote

If I had your full name, I could find your address too. sure it makes you an easier target, but it’s already pretty easy.

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Lyress t1_ityba5k wrote

How?

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UsmcFatManBear t1_itydqhf wrote

Simple property tax lookup based on name.

This is why some people buy houses under an llc to hide the owners

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seamustheseagull t1_itystrs wrote

For a country that is so obsessed with personal autonomy, freedom from big government and surveillance, you Americans sure do have a lot of big public databases with your names in them.

Here in Europe, given a name and an approximate location, my odds of finding a current home address are about 1 in 10.

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notarobot_notagirl t1_itywvv5 wrote

In Germany you can call the city someone's registered at and ask for a person's home address and they will just give it to you, UNLESS you specifically tell them not to. If you haven't filled out the form for that, which most people haven't (because who even thinks about stuff like this?), anyone can find out. At least having to actually call and talk to a person as opposed to looking it up in a database on your own is one more step people might not want to take.

This isn't common knowledge. I only know because my sibling requested their info to be blocked because of some harrassment a few years ago

Edit: This might not be the case everywhere in the country. It might vary from state to state or even from county to county, idk. I only know about that one specific city my sibling lived in at the time. The point is that you can't make a blanket statement like that for all of Europe, and while it's true that personal information is usually better protected in Europe than it is in the US, you should still be careful with what you put online. In this example a google or database search may not get you anywhere, and at least you can protect yourself by opting out of having your personal info handed out to anyone who asks for it, but still. You gotta know how to protect yourself, and if you don't, it's better to err on the side of caution.

Being protective of your personal information is common in Germany btw. I think it's because back when the gdr was a thing it used to spy on its citizens and stuff, so privacy is a value that has been passed down over the generations.

I'm not the boss of any of you though. You can go ahead and post whatever the heck you want. Just don't be surprised when your identity gets stolen or something

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lilweekend t1_iu154jm wrote

What you describe is illegal in Germany. You can’t just request that information as an ordinary person.

So even if you deny the residents registration office to reveal your data, what your friend has done would still work if he called someone who didn’t care about privacy.

Registration offices in Germany can share data under certain circumstances, for example with political parties so they can mail their advertisements, or with churches if you’re a member of a church.

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softwhiteclouds t1_itzfhb9 wrote

I had .. umm... dealings involving a Canadian who owned a winery in the US, but tried to pretend he didn't for... reasons.

In about half an hours work I found copies of the county land tax record with his winery's acreage, tax assessment, and name of the corporation; found the state corporation record showing the transfer from the previous owner to his company, signed by him; and found the state alcohol tax authority licence showing the class of licence issued, location of winery, and name of his company with his name as the contact.

It's amazing what's online, publicly available for free. And then there's what's online and available for just a small fee.

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johnclark6 t1_itzwe39 wrote

I'm sure if you went more directly to the actual European country as the source it would be easier. Like someone else said, Germany has it all easily available. Maybe it's different in your country, but it probably is easier than you think.

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lilweekend t1_iu15qng wrote

What you read about Germany is incorrect; residents registration offices in Germany may only share data under very limited circumstances.

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earhere t1_itzqfnt wrote

It's because americans only consider big government taxation against corporations and the wealthy.

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slapshots1515 t1_iu13yn4 wrote

That’s simply not a blanket statement you can make, as the odds will go from “near certainty” to “literally impossible” depending on what country in Europe you are in. It’s also not a blanket statement in either direction in America.

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defectcriminal t1_itzl2cs wrote

Most people here can’t afford property, and don’t pay taxes on it. It’s not a valuable a Google search as many believe.

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LeviAEthan512 t1_ityeys1 wrote

You can't look up the proprietors of an LLC?

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ARussianBus t1_ityjbqj wrote

There's some states where it's not public record (Delaware being one iirc). I'm not an expert on that sort of thing but I believe the idea is you register it in a state that keeps it anonymous and you can use it in other states.

If anyone reading this has a thorough understanding of how people commonly keep llcs secret and ways people try to get around that secrecy I've always been curious.

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Imortal366 t1_iu00spr wrote

Depends where you are but you often can, sometimes it takes a $5 fee

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djjazzyjulie t1_iu0lyww wrote

You can, but a workaround is having a registered agent and a PO Box

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lovestobitch- t1_itzonq5 wrote

Also Florida voter registration has your fucking birthday listed along with address and affiliation.

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KingOfTheFloridaMen t1_iu0brsj wrote

It’s literally scary how easy it is to find someone’s FL voter record and all their personal information

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kittykate1994 t1_iu0ll19 wrote

Yeah North Carolina too. I was googling my grandparents name because I forgot their address and found their voter registration and property tax records. (I just didn’t feel like calling and asking for it I wasn’t doing anything weird).

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Averill21 t1_ityjnjo wrote

You can literally google it if you have their name lol

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Lyress t1_ityk4q6 wrote

Googled my name and didn't find any address.

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petulantpeasant t1_ityuwas wrote

Hey there. My job is literally tracking down people’s property/tax records given their name (and state, but county is a big plus). Happy to give it a go to show how much is out there

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Lyress t1_itywko9 wrote

This seems to be a US thing.

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JesusLuvsMeYdontU t1_itz2c2y wrote

whitepages dot com and $60 plus $20 for full report. It ain't your grandma's phone book

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ExaltHolderForPoE t1_itysj32 wrote

Oh, boy do i have a story to tell.

Back in my early 20s(10-15y ago) when internet was still a bit "Anonymous". I would freqently visit sex/hookup sites. And boy, how easy it was to find out who i was speaking too.

Facebook, phonenumber, general age/area, licenseplate and even usernames gave tons of info towards who they where.

Yes, i was kind of a creep but it was mostly for my "Saftey".

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Gadgetman_1 t1_itzobq9 wrote

Someone once put up a webside https://pleaserobme.com/ which only pulled data from twitter...

You just typed in an adddress and it would give you a list of people nearby that was away on vacation. They locked down the system after a day or so because by then they had proven their point.

People willingly and unthinkingly give away a lot of information about themselves, all the time.

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Touch_Think t1_iu0dc3n wrote

If you are in US

Fast people search . Com

Remove spaces

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La_Saxofonista t1_itz4bt8 wrote

It sucks when you have a really unique name too.

There is only one other person in the world with my name that exists online, so the moment you look up my name, you instantly find both me and her.

You find my middle school accomplishments, pictures of me from high-school and elementary. It sucks.

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kittykate1994 t1_iu0lt9m wrote

Yeah I have this problem too. You can see where I was interviewed in the local newspaper when I was 8 two decades ago.

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zoidbergs_hot_jelly t1_iu0olpm wrote

Same. Even just my surname pulls up me and my family on the first page. Nobody has my exact name but I know that anyone with the same last name as me is somebody I'm related to, however distant. There's just not a lot of us lol

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Touch_Think t1_iu0d458 wrote

While filing some immigration forms I needed my old address from 10 years ago, I found it online, so internet knows about us more than we do 😉

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DeTrotseTuinkabouter t1_ity2c3i wrote

> Imagine if they were malicious.

They would know your last name and your address...?

Only risk I can imagine is them robbing your house when they think you might be on a honeymoon. And they would have to be in your region to do so.

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Wonderful-Bread-572 t1_ity7lii wrote

Swatting is a dangerous thing that people sometimes do to people online who have been doxed

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GrahamDotJpeg t1_itybnoe wrote

Swatting doesn’t just happen to random people who have been opportunistically doxed tho

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barricuda t1_ityfzz3 wrote

no but swatting has happened to people for stupid reasons like, "I want their twitter account"

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Wonderful-Bread-572 t1_itykzi8 wrote

Unfortunately there have been random people who get targeted by the internet and they get severely harassed and doxed for no reason other than being cringe online or just existing. It's so naive to say that it doesn't happen and it's not a problem lol. Jessi slaughter for example was just a 12/13 year old kid at the time when the internet started picking on her, doxed her, harassed her family, and it basically ruined her life. More recently there was a woman on tiktok who doxed her commenters or anybody who disagreed with her and would send people to harass them or contact their jobs and get them fired. There's plenty of other examples and I almost wish I was naive as you to think this doesn't happen lol

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GrahamDotJpeg t1_itylobc wrote

It’s naive to think there’s a significant chance for a random person who was doxed to be swatted which is what you claimed and what I was talking about. I don’t care about those people being doxed lmao I never said people don’t get doxed, I said random people don’t get swatted - be as condescending as you want tho, u still got ratioed

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Wonderful-Bread-572 t1_itz6kmz wrote

Well initially you said that you couldn't imagine any risks, and I provided you with one risk lmao. Also there are multiple people telling you what i told you. Have fun with your naivete I suppose

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UsmcFatManBear t1_itydl1k wrote

Also most county's have an online searchable database for property tax.

You can search by name and find where people live super easily. This is how most news organizations find where people live to interview them.

It's not some super secret hack lol

You just need a last name and you can find people's addresses.

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smoketheevilpipe t1_ityhxtm wrote

From there you can enter the info in a car insurance quote website, And the company will be polite enough to suggest vehicles they found registered to "your" address. You now know where they live and what they drive.

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La_Saxofonista t1_itz4k8p wrote

Yeah, but I guess the point is to not make it any easier for them.

It's like locking your door. Sure, it won't stop anyone who really wants to get in, but it's better than nothing.

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DragonLance11 t1_ity6544 wrote

They could also mail you weird crap for their own amusement

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voluotuousaardvark t1_ityhrci wrote

It sounds like they did it more as a warning. Some people are mental, the last thing you'd want is some Internet creep that's decided they're obsessed with your new wife to turn up on your doorstep with flowers.

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RockstarAgent t1_itycju8 wrote

I don’t know if you’re naive or what, but criminals can be dangerous in numerous ways, and your comment sounds so blasé like oh no big whoop getting your home broken into and robbed. Must be nice to be so nonchalant about your personal safety.

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DeTrotseTuinkabouter t1_iu017ed wrote

Then could you educate me? What are realistic things a criminal might do?

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RockstarAgent t1_iu05ii6 wrote

Straight up a determined criminal can do everything including stealing your identity, then you have to go through a lengthy process to recover it, it's not just a simple "hey I'm the real DeTrotse, don't believe this other guy" and even if it were, unless you had family or people to help you out while you sort everything out, everything can be compromised, your assets / money frozen.

And it's not just exaggerating, it's simply the real world. So when in doubt never share things that can identify you, no matter how little. License plates, names of your pets, where you work, school, gym, etc.

If a criminal "just" breaks into your home and robs you, they can at that point also steal stuff to identify you and then steal your identity. And even if you want to be positive, sure maybe worst case they open a few credit cards in your name and ruin your credit.

You also don't have to live in fear, just exercise caution and logic in not over sharing personal stuff.

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beeknees67 t1_ityhv5i wrote

If that’s the worst you can imagine you’ve missed a lot of horrible stuff. Swatting, to start.

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DeTrotseTuinkabouter t1_iu01eef wrote

Swatting to my knowledge is very, very rare. And isn't it generally done to streamers? Also only a thing in the USA to my knowledge.

What are the other crimes?

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Jorycle t1_itxipbd wrote

So in that specific case I'd say that's kind of silly to worry about. Unless you're a celebrity or have some specific factor that drums up weirdos, no one cares about your address. If somebody wants to be weird to someone, they don't need to find randos on the internet to do it - they can be weird to the multitude of people that live near them. It's not like human beings are a rarity that we need to dox people to track down.

Now personal info that can be used to steal someone's identity, that's another thing and people are always right to worry.

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nsa_reddit_monitor t1_itybyki wrote

Also if you're in the US and post a photo that includes an envelope that was mailed to you, there's almost always a postal sorting barcode (that thing that looks a bit like |'•|,,'|, etc) on it that can ID your unique mailbox/address (ZIP+4 and Delivery Point code). The data to do this is publicly available, and even if the barcode can't be scanned, it can be manually decoded because there are only four different bars (short, high, low, and tall).

Black out your entire address and the entire barcode. Seriously, it's super easy to figure out your address, and from there it's not usually hard to find your name. Name and address often means phone, SSN, etc.

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ronflair t1_ity6rfl wrote

Unless you’re a Dexter type serial killer who goes after other ne’er do wells. Then by all means, drop hints online as to when you’ll be on vacation while your valuables are left unattended in your basement.

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SilverRoseBlade t1_ity9z1o wrote

Seen this with phone numbers in pics that people post of their pets. Gotta black out that stuff!

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thephantom1492 t1_itybe3v wrote

A long time ago, in like 1997, there was a woman on a chat channel with her true name. A/S/L was the norm back then. So she go with her true city. Canada411.com, enter the name and city, find her phone number, sent it to her in pm. She freaked out. But it was a good wake up call for her. She then used a fake name, and a nearby city.

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IV4K t1_ityioys wrote

That’s public information

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Zimmonda t1_iu081y8 wrote

Wait till you learn about phone books lol

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