“Please confirm your birth date to view this content.”
Date entered by most people: January 1, 1970.
Why that specific date? Because 1/1/70 is easy to remember – especially if the site intends to periodically enter it again to verify the information you entered previously.
1/1/80 and 1/1/90 are also acceptable because those also qualify as over-21 ages.
The way some people deal with web sites that require personal information of any kind is not to hide or protect it, but just outright lie. This is why there are so many people who use a 1/1/1970(80/90) birth year, why there are tens of thousands of people listing themselves as from the tiny town of Romulus or list “close enough” cities to where they live, and so on.
Unless you’re actually going to buy something, there is nothing anywhere on any web site that states you have to be 100% truthful with your personal information. And heck, even if a terms-of-service agreement does say to be truthful and you’re not, the worst that could happen is that you’ll lose your account. However that pretty much would only happen if someone snitched on you.
Empty promises by companies are the reasons people lie
“This site will never share your personal information.”
Do you believe that statement? If you answered with, “It’s a corporation; I know they don’t care about me, so.. no”, I wouldn’t be surprised.
The way in which web site signups work can be summed up as “Trust us first; we’ll prove ourselves trustworthy to you later”. For many that’s simply not good enough, and the end result is the user lying about any personal information requested.
“Give us your phone number to verify yourself.”
Nobody wants to give a web site their phone number, and there are more than a few out there that will absolutely halt a web sign signup process when they encounter this.
It’s almost to the point where it’s worth it to buy a throwaway cell phone and spend the $7 a month just for verification crapola. Whenever you need to verify via phone number, take the phone out of the drawer, turn it on, verify, shut phone off, chuck back in the drawer until needed again.
This is yet another instance of ‘we’ll prove ourselves trustworthy to you later’, but the site never has any intention of making good on that promise.
“No PO Boxes!”
There are some sites out there that absolutely will not treat a PO Box address as real, even though it is. The site for whatever it is wants a physical address.
How many people do you think at that point will load up another browser tab with Mapquest or like site, look up the address of the closest 7-Eleven and use that instead? It is a real address, after all, and if the site is “smart” enough to verify whether an address actually exists, it will pass the test.
Have you ever lied when a web site asks for personal info?
I estimate that 100% of the people who read this will say yes.
People obviously don’t want to be identified as liars, so they’ll usually follow it up with “Yes, I lie for certain web sites, but I am truthful with other sites like PayPal and eBay.”
Well, the only reason you’re truthful with sites like PayPal and eBay is because you have to be just to send/receive cash and items and not because you want to be.
“Slightly fudging” information still counts as a lie
This is where people use information they deem “close enough”. For example, let’s say you live in Worcester, Massachusetts. A web site asks you what town you live in and you enter Boston, Massachusetts, deeming it to be close enough.
Boston is about 50 miles away from Worcester and not even in the same frickin’ county, so that’s not exactly close.
When will people start being more honest when a web site signup requires personal info?
When the companies who run those web sites start getting more honest themselves.
Honesty from a company is accomplished by practicing proper corporate responsibility over time. At present, said responsibility by corporations is at an all time low – and they’ve had more than enough time and opportunity to prove to us they can be trusted, but haven’t.
Is it all bad?
No. Some companies do practice proper corporate responsibility with their user’s personal information, and in addition routinely lock down their servers properly to ensure to the best of their ability that said information isn’t leaked out.
QUESTION: What web companies do you trust with your personal information?
Have there been certain sites that have proven to you they can be trusted with your information? For any you list, how long have you used them?
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