more on A missing package

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Brock Meeks <Brock.Meeks () msnbc com>
Date: November 8, 2005 12:24:57 AM EST
To: dave () farber net
Subject: RE: [IP] A missing package

Oh no!  Scary personal information available at the click of a  
mouse... available via the scary Internet!! What's next, child  
predators waiting to snatch our kids right in front of their  
monitors?!  (Oh, right, TIME magazine already warned us of that a  
zillion years ago...)

I mean give me a break here.  The author of this message is too  
breathless.  This kind of information from the public tax rolls has  
been "out there" and available since before Jobs and Woz were  
sneaking peeks at discarded Playboys they dug out of the dumpster  
behind the 7-11.

I'm just old enough to remember when reporters actually had to get  
off their a** and do "real" reporting that involved more physical  
movement other than a couple clicks of the mouse.  Yeah, you had to  
go to the county clerk's office, walk up a flight of stairs to the  
taxation office and dig through--wait for it--paper records! (The  
horror... the horror...)

But all this same information was there, always has been.  I don't  
want to discount the very real problem of personal information theft  
or the potential abuse of personal information stored on databases,  
but ke-ripes, this message borders on hysteria and reminds me of  
those wacko articles of years past we've all seen (and snickered at)  
that showed up on the front page of the New York Times about some  
evil of the Internet.  "Bomb making material found online!"  "Phony  
Drugs available from Internet Drug Stores!" -- Ok, the Times never  
used an exclamation point, I made that part up...

My point is:  let's save the nail-biting and worry-warting for a REAL  
problem... like the FBI putting the screws to librarians in order to  
get records of their patrons computer usage.

Good night... and good luck.

--Brock


-----Original Message-----
From: David Farber [mailto:dave () farber net]
Sent: Mon 11/7/2005 8:04 PM
To: ip () v2 listbox com
Subject: [IP] A missing package



Begin forwarded message:

From: EEkid () aol com
Date: November 7, 2005 8:47:52 PM EST
To: dave () farber net
Subject: A missing package


Mr. Farber,

About a week ago I purchased a few items online and while the package
was in transit, I eagerly awaited the arrive of the package while
tracking it's trip to my home.  The package was supposed to be
delivered on Thursday November 3rd.  The package didn't arrive as
expected.  Thinking there was simply a delay and being too busy to
check the tracking info, I waited another day.  Friday afternoon I
checked the Fed Ex tracking and was disturbed to see that it had been
left on my door step the previous day.  But, it hadn't been.  My wife
was home from work and no delivery was made.  I called the company
immediately to inform them of the problem.  They promised to resolve
the issue promptly.

Sunday night, I received voicemail message from a woman.  The message
went something like this.  'Hi my name is Tracy you must be my
neighbor, a package meant for you was delivered to my home by
mistake, you can come by to pick it up.'  She left no return phone
number or address.  I looked at my caller ID and it recorded her
phone number and name.  I called it but there was no answer.  While I
was on the phone, I pointed my laptop to an internet reverse
telephone lookup site.  No luck, there was no listing for her phone
number.  I had an idea, since I knew what street she lived on (same
as me), I searched the Maryland Department of Taxation website.
There I found her name, her husbands name, address, the size and type
of her home, the size of her property and how much she paid for it.
I then punched in the address into Google maps and it pointed to her
address on the street.  Of course Google maps always seems to point
to the house next door, but I knew the immediate vicinity.  A short
while later, she called again and this time gave me directions to her
home.

As I stood on her doorstep and received my package, I realized just
how easy it was to quickly unravel her personal information.  I
didn't reveal to her that I knew her name, address and value of her
home before she called back.  I must admit I was a bit embarrassed
that I had done so.

I can remember playing with my first computer years ago, it was a
Commodore 64 with  2400 baud modem, I never dreamed such things would
be possible.  Yet, what's ahead?


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