this post was submitted on 09 Aug 2023
117 points (98.3% liked)

Privacy

31934 readers
608 users here now

A place to discuss privacy and freedom in the digital world.

Privacy has become a very important issue in modern society, with companies and governments constantly abusing their power, more and more people are waking up to the importance of digital privacy.

In this community everyone is welcome to post links and discuss topics related to privacy.

Some Rules

Related communities

Chat rooms

much thanks to @gary_host_laptop for the logo design :)

founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
 

I don't know if this scenario is the norm or is related to most people but I was so baffled when I found that I have to post it.

Here(Brazil) the most used app for communication is Whatsapp(first warning about low privacy concern) and a lot of people are members of cities/neighborhood/church groups, sometimes with hundreds of members. A coworker whose is part of said groups describe a common practice within the less tech savvy people: When finding a personal document(ID, credit card etc) they take photos of the document both sides without any censoring and spread to many groups as possible trying to find the owner...

Some of this documents have all relevant information to open a bank account or access banking apps and I don't even thinking about what a more tech/professional person could do with some of these information.

If they just ripped and thrown in the garbage was less harmful in any sense to the owner.

top 8 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] max@nano.garden 41 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Both sides? "Oh yeah, the front looks a lot like the ID I lost, but can you please send me the back side too so that I can confirm?"

[–] ZeroHora@lemmy.ml 28 points 1 year ago (1 children)

The back of the ID has the names of mother and father, probably the idea was to find someone who knows them. But this is used to validate a person in any fucking bank account or any government application.

[–] max@nano.garden 18 points 1 year ago

Aah, ok! That at least explains what they could have been thinking.

But, of course, this is a terrible idea!!

[–] bady@lemmy.ml 14 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

I've heard that in such situations one can drop such docs, with address, in any postbox nearby and the postal worker will deliver them. I've never tried this myself & I don't know if people actually do that, but sounded like a good idea to me.

Anyway, I understand that the underlying issue is more important and finding any immediate solution alone won't help. It's much more important to spread awareness about the importance of privacy.

[–] Tippon@lemmy.world 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Apparently that's in the US. Before you try it, check that it's a thing in your region 👍

[–] XTL@sopuli.xyz 3 points 1 year ago

Police stations are often the right place and official documents and particularly valuable lost and found may well be their legal responsibility as well.

But yes, check.

[–] jet@hackertalks.com 5 points 1 year ago

Good reason to limit who has access

[–] jacktherippah@lemdro.id 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

The most used communication app in my country is a homegrown, bloated, tracker - ridden privacy invading nightmare that the government keeps pushing by making people use it for actual OFFICIAL GOVERNMENT BUSINESS. I bet they're scanning everything in that app alright.