this post was submitted on 23 Oct 2023
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[–] pascal@lemm.ee 1 points 2 years ago (1 children)

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

[–] AlphaOmega@lemmy.world 1 points 2 years ago

And iirc you had to pay to get your number listed as private. Like blackmail

[–] chiliedogg@lemmy.world 1 points 2 years 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."

[–] AgentGrimstone@lemmy.world 0 points 2 years ago (1 children)

We used to pick up every call back then because 9.8/10, it wasn't some scam call

[–] son_named_bort@lemmy.world 0 points 2 years ago (1 children)

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.

[–] not_that_guy05@lemmy.world 0 points 2 years ago (1 children)
[–] NateNate60@lemmy.world 1 points 2 years 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.
[–] ColeSloth@discuss.tchncs.de 0 points 2 years ago

Yellow was for business. The giant white book was for people.

[–] just_change_it@lemmy.world 0 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (1 children)

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 0 points 2 years ago (1 children)

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 0 points 2 years ago (1 children)

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 0 points 2 years ago (1 children)

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 0 points 2 years ago (1 children)

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...

[–] Duamerthrax@lemmy.world 0 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Don't make claims you can't back up.

[–] SuckMyWang@lemmy.world 0 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (1 children)

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 0 points 2 years ago (1 children)

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

[–] SuckMyWang@lemmy.world 0 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

I see where you’re coming from but let’s not resort to name calling. They may see their error or reply with a credible counter argument