# My Cover's Been Blown.



## MrWhoopee (Feb 10, 2022)

I just received a solicitation from Single Care in the mail. It was addressed to Phineas Whoopee at my mailing address. I have NEVER used my alias in association with either my address or phone number. Somehow they put it together.


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## eugene13 (Feb 10, 2022)

Don't worry about Big Brother, AI is watching you.  (not AL, aye eye)


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## jpackard56 (Feb 10, 2022)

FedEx delivered last week in the snow storm to the nickname that my grand kids gave me a few years ago with no other name anywhere on the box. The two guys walked all the way up to the house and asked, I didn't have to sign for it but they wantwd to check for sure before dropping at the gate. Product was something I ordered from Graingers on my regular account ?? so yes somebody is apparently cross referencing text, phone ? Cause that nickname is NOT posted anywhere, unless Alexa really is listening.....


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## Bi11Hudson (Feb 10, 2022)

That is one of the reasons I use Bi11 instead of Bill. The numeric characters tend to confuse computer listing systems. I have an alternate address under my real name, just another way to 'gum up' the system. Something I do whenever I can. . . Have since the beginning of small computers, ca. 1974.

.


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## westerner (Feb 10, 2022)

jpackard56 said:


> unless Alexa really is listening.....


Well, that IS her job, ya?


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## matthewsx (Feb 10, 2022)

Yes


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## strantor (Feb 10, 2022)

Alexa is listening.
Siri is listening.
Google is listening.
Roku is listening.
.gov is listening.
Pretty sure my truck is listening. 
I think the only one not listening is my dog.


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## wachuko (Feb 10, 2022)

strantor said:


> …I think the only one not listening is my dog.



Oh he is listening…



Now, if you had a cat, then that one would not be listening… those do not care…


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## Aaron_W (Feb 10, 2022)

strantor said:


> Alexa is listening.
> Siri is listening.
> Google is listening.
> Roku is listening.
> ...



My kids aren't listening, or maybe they just have me on ignore.


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## Eyerelief (Feb 10, 2022)

My wife isn’t listening. Oh wait, she says I’m not listening


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## Dhal22 (Feb 10, 2022)

The wife and I have started talking about a new dishwasher and the next thing you know videos start showing up on YouTube concerning the best dishwasher buys.


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## Dhal22 (Feb 10, 2022)

Eyerelief said:


> My wife isn’t listening. Oh wait, she says I’m not listening




My wife says I don't listen to her.   Or something like that.


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## Just for fun (Feb 10, 2022)

Just because you are paranoid doesn't mean they are not out to get you!


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## FOMOGO (Feb 10, 2022)

My hearing is going, can't hear who's listening, so's I just keep talking, hoping I'll hear hear myself here. Hear here, there their, wear where. If I new, or cared I'd tell ya. Mike


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## silence dogood (Feb 10, 2022)

"They're coming to take me away. ha, haaa!" by Jerry Samuels.


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## C-Bag (Feb 11, 2022)

I’d listened to a very interesting podcast by ex Google exec and we don’t have Alexis or a smart tv but we do have phones. Friends of ours we out in their garden and heard their cell so went in and got it, answered the call, hung up and continued with the gardening. They were talking about they needed a new table cloth and discussed which color/pattern and decided on plaid as they’d never had one. Got done with gardening and checked their email and there was an ad for plaid table cloths from a company they’d never heard of. Spooked them. We were talking about how our new puppy is constantly eating everything everywhere and how I dont always catch him in time. Within an hour I get an email from a pet insurance company. I’ve never gotten pet insurance before.


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## paradox_pete (Feb 11, 2022)

Just for fun said:


> Just because you are paranoid doesn't mean they are not out to get you!


It's not paranoia if they really are out to get you.  8^)


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## mmcmdl (Feb 11, 2022)

Whenever I log into the puter I have Adam & Eve ads pop up . Have to wonder .............................................


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## JRaut (Feb 11, 2022)

I purchased a cheap URL and GMail services for it.

Now, anytime I sign up for anything, I use a custom email tied only to that website:

 - Sign up for eBay? Use the email: ebay@<myurl.com>

 - Sign up for Home Depot? Use the email: HomeDepot@<myurl.com>

Everything gets dumped into the same inbox, but I can see who's selling my email information and chop off that whole email address with a few clicks.

My wife thinks I'm nuts.


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## Just for fun (Feb 11, 2022)

paradox_pete said:


> It's not paranoia if they really are out to get you.  8^)


Man,  isn't that the truth!


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## Just for fun (Feb 11, 2022)

We don't have any of the listing services like Alaxa.  I have the voice search turned off on both my phone and my wife's.   And for the most part we use Duck Duck Go for web searching, I still use Google once in a while. 

It has helped.


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## RandyWilson (Feb 11, 2022)

JRaut said:


> I purchased a cheap URL and GMail services for it.
> 
> Now, anytime I sign up for anything, I use a custom email tied only to that website:
> 
> ...




 I run my own mail server.... but mine isn't in the bathroom closet; it's in the laundry room. Every login /website that "needs" and email address gets their own individual and unique address. This makes it easy to sort, file, and delete. Or blow away the whole addy if it's purpose has passed.

More than once I've called up a small company to tell them their systems have been hacked. They inevitably deny it. I point out that I am getting spam (usually canadian meds) on an email address that has only been used once and is only stored on their server. Unfortunately they are usually too stupid to understand the implications.


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## JimDawson (Feb 11, 2022)

I just gave up trying to hide....They'll find you.  

I have the black helicopters circling overhead right now.    But I'm safe, I have my tinfoil hat on.


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## rabler (Feb 11, 2022)

JRaut said:


> I purchased a cheap URL and GMail services for it.
> 
> Now, anytime I sign up for anything, I use a custom email tied only to that website:


Haven't tried it recently, but at one time it was common for email servers to ignore anything after a + in the username field.  So you could send email to user+blah@server.com, where blah was anything you wanted to add.    I use a standard ISP for my email address, but have it configured to deliver +blah to folder name blah.  So I can put in +spam and something automatically goes to the spam folder.

edited to add:  +spam still works for me, I sent a test email to +spam myself.


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## Nogoingback (Feb 11, 2022)

silence dogood said:


> "They're coming to take me away. ha, haaa!" by Jerry Samuels.


Naw, they just want to sell you something...


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## rabler (Feb 11, 2022)

JimDawson said:


> I just gave up trying to hide....They'll find you.
> 
> I have the black helicopters circling overhead right now.  But I'm safe, I have my tinfoil hat on.


Supervised a staff that ran a mail server for group at a University for quite a while.  One day in the early 1990's the FBI dropped in with a court order allowing them to monitor all traffic going in and out of our server, and that we were required to continue running the server without any steps to enhance security.  One of my employees pointed out that a new $5,000 board in our Cisco hub would allow them to monitor that server without it being obvious (the server sat in room with a glass wall).  Said board showed up a day or two later.    All they would say was someone was using that server in a hop to do something illegal.  

I didn't check to see if they drove black sedans


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## pgmrdan (Feb 14, 2022)

Anyone have a cell phone running the KaiOS operating system.  Supposed to be much more secure than iOS and Android or so I hear.  I miss the security of my BlackBerry phones.  I'd also like a phone with a removable battery.  I think they're not removable in most phones so the phone can keep tracking you even when it's turned off.


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## keeena (Feb 15, 2022)

rabler said:


> Haven't tried it recently, but at one time it was common for email servers to ignore anything after a + in the username field.  So you could send email to user+blah@server.com, where blah was anything you wanted to add.    I use a standard ISP for my email address, but have it configured to deliver +blah to folder name blah.  So I can put in +spam and something automatically goes to the spam folder.
> 
> edited to add:  +spam still works for me, I sent a test email to +spam myself.



Another tip for gmail users (maybe others?) - a period anywhere in an email address (not the domain part) will be ignored. e.g. if your email is notmyemail@gmail (dot com), then you will also receive emails addressed as follows:

not.myemail@gmail (dot com)
not.my.email@gmail (dot com)
etc...

I did this a long time ago as a quick/easy way to have unique-ish emails when registering at other sites because you could see the email address  version they used.


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