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The relation between full name, telephone number, and physical address is not secret at all. Sometimes I feel like I'm the only person who grew up with a phone book. The financial sector abuses some of the more obscure facts about people (SSN, DL/passport number, bank account number, address history, mother's maiden name) as authenticators. They aren't. In the short term, someone can create a lot of bureaucratic hassle for you by knowing these facts. In the long term, institutions will adapt to the reality that knowing them no longer proves anything. The stuff you should really care about, IMO: Contents of private conversations. Interests and opinions expressed online that could harm real-world relationships. Habits and characteristics that could signal insurance, credit, or crime risk. Political activity far from mainstream. Relationships with controversial or high-risk people. Evidence of excessive wealth for your context. The fact that person with your metadata exists and does normal life things like having a home, a job, a cell phone, and a bank account is always going to be well-known. This information is more or less neutral. The real secrets are those which might prompt some actor (friend, lover, ex-spouse, family member, boss, insurance underwriter, lender, police, secret police, conman, vigilante, person who is wrong on the internet, etc) to turn against you, or to do worse damage than they would otherwise. |
It's inexcusable that someone can pretend to be you, sign up for stuff at various services, and some how that ends up being your responsibility to fix. It should be the various businesses who failed to correctly identify you and they should be financially liable, not you who had ZERO to do with it.