• pascal@lemm.ee
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    36
    ·
    1 year ago

    hey OP, you’re so young you don’t even know the difference between white pages and yellow pages!

  • linearchaos@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    13
    ·
    1 year ago

    God the old days.

    I was in 9th grade, went to school with the girl I liked. She was shy, but cute and fun. I asked her out, and was flatly refused.

    Starting the next year, I changed districts. Thought about her a lot for a couple years. Broke out the phone book and searched her last name. Went through about 6 before I found her and asked her out again. We dated for about 3 more years until things started getting pretty serious and I decided I wasn’t ready to get married in my teens.

  • Jeffool @lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    8
    ·
    1 year ago

    I remember for a brief time Google offered up names, addresses, and phone numbers in their search results. Then after like a year (maybe less?) people decided to get freaked out over it. They offered a way to opt out, then just removed it entirely.

    I also remember back in the 90s, my mom and stepdad buying a 7 disc set of phone numbers and addresses. No idea why they did it… But it was a thing.

  • m3t00🌎@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    6
    ·
    1 year ago

    was pretty accurate that any phonebook entry that used first initial, last name was a woman. self-defeating obfuscation

  • harmonea@kbin.social
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    3
    ·
    1 year ago

    We actually just got our yellow pages in the mailbox last week or the week before, I think. I was baffled. I was like they still MAKE these?

    Shit was no thicker than an old GamePro magazine. Just the businesses who are still buying ads I guess.

  • chiliedogg@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    1
    ·
    1 year ago

    White pages are where people doxxed themselves.

    Yellow pages were business listings. They were also sorted by category, then alphabetically within a category, which is why so many businesses names started with “AAA.”

  • just_change_it@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    0
    ·
    edit-2
    1 year ago

    Some of us who lived in that era and who are tech savvy think the privacy paranoia is little more than the equivalent of TSA’s security theater at airports.

    There is nothing stopping anyone from finding out exactly who you are, where you are, and what you’re doing. We all carry locator devices today that never existed in the era of the phone book.

    Our social security numbers weren’t in databases with internet exposure where financial companies with information “security” could have them leak. Everyone’s has leaked now.

    A lot more people than you’d think are easily googled right down to address, family names, current phone number, past addresses… you name it. Leaks happen every single day and big data is everywhere monitoring your everything.

    Having your name, address and home phone number in a book that only has regional numbers and isn’t widely distributed beyond the local scope is the the smallest privacy concern.

    Seems like the average young person is fine posting photos and videos on all the social media platforms journaling their whereabouts and habits too.

    • Rodeo@lemmy.ca
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      0
      ·
      1 year ago

      There is nothing stopping anyone from finding out exactly who you are, where you are, and what you’re doing.

      All right prove it.

      Post my real name, real home address, and my current location.

      There’s nothing stopping you, apparently.

      • BeigeAgenda@lemmy.ca
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        0
        ·
        1 year ago

        To find you attackers would:

        • Look through your 868 comments, from that they can build a persona.
        • Start looking for alt accounts on the fediverse using that information.
        • Could be you were active on Reddit/twitter/facebook they could probably find you there, even if you deleted all your posts/comments.

        How much have you doxxed yourself through the years?

        • Duamerthrax@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          0
          ·
          1 year ago

          Then do it. I used the same username reddit. Last time someone tried to prove it, they got the state wrong and I never even tried hiding that.

          • BeigeAgenda@lemmy.ca
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            0
            ·
            1 year ago

            Naah, I got better stuff to do than snooping at you 🕵️

            And I’m not experienced in it, so it would take a lot of time learning the craft. Those series don’t watch themselves you know…

              • SuckMyWang@lemmy.world
                link
                fedilink
                arrow-up
                0
                ·
                edit-2
                1 year ago

                In this persons defence it’s like them claiming you could have a tumour removed from your brain to save your life. Then you reply prove it. Then they say I’m not a surgeon. Then you say don’t make claims you can’t back up. There are steps missing in the logic

                • Krauerking@lemy.lol
                  link
                  fedilink
                  arrow-up
                  0
                  ·
                  1 year ago

                  Yeah he’s just be a cunt that pretends he doesn’t understand nuance to feel superior. Still plenty of that from reddit here

    • son_named_bort@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      0
      ·
      1 year ago

      Telemarketers have existed for a long time, and they would usually call during dinner. We would answer because there was no caller ID and thus no way to know if it was somebody we knew or not.

        • NateNate60@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          1 year ago

          What’s changed are three things:

          • There used to be an upcharge for long-distance telephone calls. So even though telemarketing calls existed, they wouldn’t be long-distance calls from some call centre across the country because that would be prohibitively expensive for the marketer.
          • Calls used to be metered and charged by the minute or by the call. Every time a call was connected, the clock started ticking and the phone companies started billing. That means it wasn’t economical to make thousands of bulk cold calls because you’d have to pay a nickel per minute and that would cost a lot of money and labour. On top of that, the people you’d call would get angry at you for wasting their airtime (especially on cell phones) and thus would likely not buy whatever you’re selling anyway. On top of that, angry people would sometimes get revenge by faxing you pieces of black cardstock.
          • The telephone network was analogue and physical. Nowadays you can outsource cold calls to a foreign country and sign up for a VoIP service that lets you make hundreds of calls a day through automated dialling completely anonymously, whereas just a few decades ago, you’d have to purchase a physical dialling machine for hundreds of dollars, hook it up to a physical telephone line, and call customers knowing that they can trace your calls back to you, and on top of that, successfully sue you for $500 per unsolicited call (in America) under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act 1991.
  • BearWolf@lemmings.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    1
    arrow-down
    2
    ·
    1 year ago

    And now people willingly dox themselves on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, Tinder, Grindr, etc.