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.
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?”
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.
Aah, ok! That at least explains what they could have been thinking.
But, of course, this is a terrible idea!!
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.
Apparently that’s in the US. Before you try it, check that it’s a thing in your region 👍
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.
Good reason to limit who has access
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.
