[SteveGerencser]

A not-so-secret dirty little secret is that many of the reputation management agencies also own many of the public records websites that publish mug shots, court records, and so on. When you hire them to remove that information from the internet it puts you into a cycle of being removed from one or two of their website and added to something else.

You end up in a never-ending game of whack-a-mole. Complete with monthly fees.

[_factor]

Related, proofpoint is notorious for this as well. They will block your mail server without cause, forcing you through their process of delisting.

Pay and your problems magically go away. Proofpoint was consistently the only block hit.

[calvinmorrison]

Tbf putting up cash is a great signal for 'not a spammer'.

[_factor]

True, but not the only method. You’d be surprised how many spammers drop with greylisting enabled.

[tedajax]

Not really it's just a cost of doing business and if paying that cost "legitimizes" you then the ROI is probably significant.

[_factor]

Similar to a mafia coming to your small business and telling you you need to pay to stay open, otherwise they’ll make sure you. Still just the cost of business? Seems more like a power imbalance.

[endofreach]

That's what elon thought & got hate for.

[greggsy]

It’s racketeering

[m463]

this seems to fit the definition.

In many cases, the potential problem may be caused by the same party that offers to solve it, but that fact may be concealed, with the intent to engender continual patronage.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racketeering

[throwaway2474]

See also https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Worldcoin

[andirk]

Lol those orbs! Oddly, Worldcoin's main exchange is Binance which stopped doing business in USA so I couldn't get a bag. Up almost 10x. Not bad for a sphere that proves "personhood". With AI making actual people vs machine created more difficult to discern, it may have evermore applications.

[walterbell]

From "The Sopranos", Patsy and Burt failed extortion attempt at "Starbucks", https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Gsz7Gu6agA

[dylan604]

I always loved that scene. The times, they are a-changin

[maximinus_thrax]

It's been going on for years https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/jun/12/mugshot-e...

[Arrath]

Watch these vultures frame it as clever vertical integration.

They control the supply (the sites with your info) and the demand (the sites you can go through to request it get taken down)

/s, obviously

[sonicanatidae]

That sounds like credit bureaus.

You know, those entities that hoover up any and all info on you, that you cannot opt out of, maintain information whether its accurate or not and refuse to delete obviously erroneous data, then release it *all* to the world by being extremely poor stewards of said data, then charging you for credit monitoring for the rest of your life, since your immutable info just got shared with assholes.

Guess who owns most/all of the credit monitoring entities?

Edit: typo...words are hard.

[ragestorm]

Luckily you can mail them a permanent opt out for most of that stuff. IIRC, it removes your name from the searchable list of info 3rd parties use for marketing.

Additionally, if you haven't, freeze your credit at all bureaus including LexisNexis.

[sonicanatidae]

I've frozen all of mine, because thanks to Equifax, I don't have a choice.

I wish you good luck opting out. I'm not talking about what the law says, I'm talking about how they act.

Technically, you can dispute incorrect info. What that dispute amounts to is the bureau asking the entity if it's accurate. No proof needed. If they say it's accurate, then you're stuck with it, until you jump through many, many more hoops.

[SlightlyLeftPad]

This sounds awfully familiar, like the window repair guy breaking windows or the tire salesman dropping boxes of nails on the road. The only difference is both of those things are illegal.

I guess we could say it’s the data privacy mafia.

[vmfunction]

The lesson for the modern ago. Don't put stuff into digital form if you want privacy!

Some places don't allow use of smart phone. They actually ask you check your phone into a coat check type thing at door! One journalist friend often leaves the smart phone at home.

[sunnybeetroot]

This sets a terrible precedent. For most, a phone is all or a combination of; house keys, car keys, bank cards, medical records, photo albums, etc. Giving all that up to a stranger (albeit behind a passcode) is a step backwards in security and privacy. An alternative that I have witnessed is places place your phone in a lockable bag that you then carry with you. They unlock the bag when you exit.

[CatWChainsaw]

The fact that a phone is a single point of failure for so much of your digital AND meatspace life is a terrible precedent, too.

[autoexec]

> Giving all that up to a stranger (albeit behind a passcode) is a step backwards in security and privacy.

putting all that on a device that you don't control and that "strangers" at apple or google can access or make changes to at any time, and without any notice to you and without any permission from you sounds like a step backwards in security and privacy.

[sunnybeetroot]

You’re not wrong.

[philjohn]

More theatre performances are doing this now.

Cabaret at the Kit Kat club in London places a sticker over any camera lens. The Burnt City, an immersive theatrical experience, makes you place your phone in a pouch that is then sealed with a tamper evident fastening before you enter the venue.

[noir_lord]

Never did.

It wasn't paranoia it was a healthy dose of "if this is possible, someone is doing it"

Turned out they in fact were doing it.

[mrguyorama]

More like : If it is not explicitly illegal and aggressively enforced by someone, a business will attempt it, regardless of whether it makes money or not.

Everything else is fair game apparently.

[jojobas]

This lesson can't be bashed into children enough.

[patcon]

Isn't this just a white-hat/black-hat hacker dynamic, except in this case the latter is legal?

[ironmagma]

Well, both hats ostensibly are at least doing real work (finding vulnerabilities).