Sometimes, the mail brings a big surprise.
Yesterday, there was a letter in our mailbox. Yes, a real live, actual, letter. The return name and address were that of someone we haven't seen in many years - a man that my spouse served in the military with and had become friends with. (Let's call him OMF or Old Military Friend).
After spouse got out of the military, we visited OMF and his family in the late 1970's when we were in his home area. I think we exchanged a handful of letters (this was before email) and then lost touch.
Back around 2009-2010, I found a blog. The blog author was a high school teacher in that same state with the same name as OMF. I took a chance and contacted him asking if he was the same man my spouse had served with. He was.
But after one exchange of letters we lost touch with each other. Again.
Until yesterday.
The letter began: "Hello (my spouse's nickname in the military) (at least I hope so)" and went on to say that he found my spouse's address through a 2010 document that discussed a manufacturing building (now demolished) in our neighborhood. It was owned by the military and rented out to a major defense contractor.
It was ruined in a flood the year after the document was published.
It's a wonderful thing when something online helps old friends reconnect.
But that document....
I found it online in less than a minute. I won't get into the document except it had to do with pollution found at the site (not unknown to me). There was a plan to clean up the site.
And, in an appendix, I found this: (bolding is mine)
Residents Living Nearby [name of building]
Residential Contacts – Pursuant to Exemption 6 of the Freedom of Information Act
(FOIA), 5 USC 552(b)(6), this list should not be released to the public to protect the personal privacy of the residents living nearby [name of building].
Below that heading was a list of the name and address of people living in my neighborhood and a couple of other neighborhoods as of 2010.
Online,where anyone can find it.
And no, I'm not linking to it.
I believe all the information in this appendix is public information and, I know several named people are either deceased or have moved away.
But some of us are still living there.
True, the document had a good use - it helped OMF find us (yet again). But what ever happened to the disclosure that a list of names and addresses should not be released? Because it certainly was released. I'm not a lawyer, and maybe there is a time limit to this exemption to the Freedom of Information Act. After all, the document is from 2010.
We all know we have no expectation of privacy nowadays. I already have a footprint on search engines due to blogging and use of social media. So do many of my readers. And there are all the databases that contain information on us.
But it still feels weird to see what I saw online yesterday. Maybe "weird" isn't the right word, but I can't find the right word to describe it.
P.S. yes, my spouse is going to answer that letter.
...my wife has a specialty of doing searches of people, I'm dismayed by all the information that can be found.
ReplyDeleteInteresting. My spouse, too, served in the army during the Vietnam War era. He went to Vietnam and, in fact, has many beautiful pictures that he took of the country. His job in the army involved photography and writing which made use of his skills as a journalist. The bonds of the "band of brothers" who served are strong.
ReplyDeleteIt's weird all the obscure things that are online and when it includes names and address it's scary! Does the document list who has this site up and contact information? I would contact them and ask them to remove names and addresses.
ReplyDeleteTerrifying, isn't it? And the fact is, we gave them the information without a moment's hesitation. Remember how, when you were a kid, they warned you that everything you did was going on your Permanent Record?
ReplyDeleteYou have no control over this kind of information. You’d be surprised about what I can find if I have some information, a little bit of time, and a credit card,
ReplyDeleteI've searched for myself, and while some of the information on those "find anyone" sites is correct, so much isn't I just let it be rather than request to be removed. Apparently I'm a Hispanic (not) owner of a auto repair shop (not).
ReplyDeleteI don't know why so much is considered public record these days.
thecontemplativecat here. Getting an honest to goodness letter when I was a child was like Christmas. Now, what we write an email, it zips along the magic of computer in seconds. different world.
ReplyDeleteThe title of your post (don't expect privacy) is very sound advice.
ReplyDeleteHere's my story: I went to the tax authority to clarify something. After a while, I started to get sms from unknown numbers offering me tax advice. I susoect they got my number from the tax authority, which is against the law. I should have complained but I was afraid. I'm still thinking of a way to deal with it.
If anything gets to internet, there is no privacy. Unless living off the grid.
ReplyDeleteIt is scary all the information and misinformation that is out there about us. I wish there was a way to get some of that privacy back.
ReplyDeleteThat just seems wrong to have a paragraph saying don't show the following and then shows the following. As a long-time blogger, I've pretty much given up on the notion of privacy.
ReplyDeleteWhen intentions are pure, I have no problem with people finding my information. But when in this present day are intentions pure? This is scary. A mutual friend's son had an altercation with a man online. When the son reached out to try to smooth things over, the man reacted with hostility and changed his profile picture to a picture of their house. When I read about it, I was literally shaking!
ReplyDeleteThe info out there and people's access to it have created a whole new level of fear for me!