u/Mayayana

I posted useful info about changes in US Treasury accounts. I then got a "chat" message with no message. I didn't understand that I was supposed to explain my post. So now my OP is removed due to my comment not being upvoted.

Could we do away with that function? Up until now I've been ignoring OP comments to explain their posts, but I realize now that even if people upvote an OP, it might be removed because they didn't upvote the explanation for the post! That makes no sense.

And why must OPs be upvoted in the first place, in order to not be removed? In my experience, the most upvotes, by far, are given to pictures. Other posts may be important but get limited votes due to having a specific audience.

This might not be relevant to many people, but I just got an email because I invest in US Treasury bills. Safe investment with decent interest. (I can't afford to risk the stock market casino.)

Up until now, the UST website has required a password and an emailed code to log in. Good enough for me. No one can do anything with my account, anyway, unless they want to invest in my name.

Starting next month, UST is going to require ID.me. I looked it up. It's a private company that's somehow captured nearly all government contracts for identity confirmation. They'll apparently require uploading a video from a cellphone with their own app installed, along with drivers license and SS number -- all going to an opaque, private company. That means that they'll probably be able to track and potentially sell the location of most people who take part. There's no other reason to require a cellphone and a special app to make a video. But I'm even more worried about the privacy/security risk in general. Right now it would be extremely hard for anyone to hack my account. But it wouldn't be so hard if someone hacks ID.me and they're the sole arbiter of my identity.

This is an interesting story about an arrest of a hacker. The court filing is here: https://www.justice.gov/usao-ndil/media/1450651/dl?inline (PDF)

The story: https://cybernews.com/security/windows-telemetry-gdid-helps-arrest-hacker/

Long story short, a young man got caught in a crime because his Windows computer was sending telemetry to MS, including every URL he visited and a unique ID from his computer. Global Device ID or GDID. Law enforcement asked Microsoft for a record of activity by the computer with a specific ID.

This isn't entirely surprising, though MS haven't been entirely open about the extent of their spying. But it's a good reminder: Never use Edge or other MS software. Avoid Microsoft's store. Block updates if possible. Set all telemetry options to their lowest levels. Use a firewall program like Simplewall, because Windows will still call home even when you've chosen every single option to have it NOT call home.

It could be possible to do something like write a script to change the ID daily, which is stored in the Registry as a text string. But it's more to the point to simply block the leak.