I noticed D&B have recently had FTC violations/settlements but not sure they touch this specific situation, but I'm honestly curious if there's anything we can do about this.
https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2025/09/...
I don't think there is any solution other than changing my phone number at this point. The issue is fucking sites keep using phone number as 2fa.
The Delete Act
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46449694
California residents can now request all data brokers delete personal info
Long term, if compliance with data deletion requests becomes a pain, maybe companies will finally give us an opt out of surveillance capitalism? Or maybe they'll just lock me out of my own car (I guess it's their car since I don't have root on it, lol)
Problem is though, you'd be revealing more data about them than I probably have by sending it.
Does this cover things like credit reports/scores? If someone submits a request to this DROP thing, is it possible data gets deleted that they don't intend?
> “Data broker” means a business that knowingly collects and sells to third parties the personal information of a consumer with whom the business does not have a direct relationship. “Data broker” does not include any of the following:
> An entity to the extent that it is covered by the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act (15 U.S.C. Sec. 1681 et seq.).
> An entity to the extent that it is covered by the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (Public Law 106-102) and implementing regulations.
> An entity to the extent that it is covered by the Insurance Information and Privacy Protection Act (Article 6.6 (commencing with Section 791) of Chapter 1 of Part 2 of Division 1 of the Insurance Code).
> An entity, or a business associate of a covered entity, to the extent their processing of personal information is exempt under Section 1798.146. For purposes of this paragraph, “business associate” and “covered entity” have the same meanings as defined in Section 1798.146 [1].
I don't think HN counts as a "data broker" under this definition since they state that they "do not collect any Personal Information unless you choose to provide your email address and/or information in the "about" field" for HN accounts and "do not sell or share your Personal Information (as those terms are defined under the CCPA)."
[0]: https://cppa.ca.gov/regulations/pdf/data_broker_reg_delete_a...
[1]: https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySectio....
EDIT: Android also surfaces this information more generally, I just found it under More Privacy Settings -> Ads
> In case it's of interest, here's the standard language from emails I send people:
> We try not to delete posts that got replies, because doing so would be unfair to the other commenters in the thread. What I've done so far is reassign it to a random user ID, so it's as if you'd used a throwaway account to post it and there's no link to your main account. Does that work?
When I asked dang to do better after me and my family got death threats online, dang told me “tough luck”
To this day thousands of my comments from my old username are on this site and trivially east to link to my real name. (Links to my website, etc)
In 2012 when I started commenting here I had no idea it would lead to death threats and I’d have a two year old daughter.