WTF - they got the PAF

[eek]

It doesn't contain any personal data. It is just a list of addresses structured to reflect how the post office does deliveries

FTFY The useful bit is a side effect of the main purpose...

[Peoplesoft bloke]

You could say the same about dates of birth, but it all erodes anonymity and makes it that much easier to pinch peoples' identities and send junk mail.

Are you being deliberately dense for effect? It's the equivalent of a list of possible dates when people could have been born - that's it. There is no personal data in the PAF.

Edited to add for the hard of thinking -

From PAF programmers guide
You won’t find the names of private individuals on PAF®, except in instances where they’re the only method of
identifying a Delivery Point. Any surnames on PAF® will be in brackets (-) in the Building or Sub Building Name
fields.

[OwlHoot]

Are you being deliberately dense for effect?

Being the humourless obnoxious person you are, you must find it terribly hard to tell. But I'm not.

It's the equivalent of a list of possible dates when people could have been born - that's it.

It's equivalent to meeting a stranger, or following them around, and knowing their birthday.

The postcode data isn't _just_ an anonymised list in some database. It relates to physical places, which can be driven past and loitered near, and their address (besides the postcode) obtained from house names or number and street name.

Don't mistake the chart for the terrain.

[darmstadt]

It doesn't contain any personal data. It is just a list of addresses.

But as they're also looking at selling off the Land Registry to private enterprise as well, then the combination of the two is quite powerful...

[OwlHoot]

But as they're also looking at selling off the Land Registry to private enterprise as well, then the combination of the two is quite powerful...

Exactly - It's the synergy of lots of information snippets, each perhaps innocuous and anonymous in themselves, that can allow the bad guys to assemble personal profiles which are more than the sum of their parts, especially when combined with physical observation.

But I suppose your typical Oracle database hacker can't be expected to understand that.

[Peoplesoft bloke]

Exactly - It's the synergy of lots of information snippets, each perhaps innocuous and anonymous in themselves, that can allow the bad guys to assemble personal profiles which are more than the sum of their parts, especially when combined with physical observation.

But I suppose your typical Oracle database hacker can't be expected to understand that.

I see, so using the PAF file, information from the Land Registry and er....hanging about outside my house is going to lead to a massive increase in identity theft?

The PAF was available to anyone who paid for it before the sell-off so nothing's actually changed.

As for your attempt to insult me about Oracle DBs - it's way off the mark for a number a reasons, including my lack of anything but the most rudimentary database skills.

Please enlighten me about why you think the sell-off has made one iota of difference to the potential for misuse of the PAF. I am willing to accept I am a cretin in this area if it helps - but unless you have my name and address already - what help is the PAF to stealing my identity?

[Doggy Styles]

I remember when they used to post big books full of addresses, plus the name and phone number of who lived in every one, through everyone's letterbox.

[OwlHoot]

The PAF was available to anyone who paid for it before the sell-off so nothing's actually changed.

True, granted. It's a bit late to worry about the PAF now.

But I still maintain the general point that when it comes to snippets of data, many a mickle can make a muckle.

[Peoplesoft bloke]

many a mickle can make a muckle.

..and that's it? That's what gives you the right to poke fun at people for being "typical Oracle database hackers"

'kin 'ell for a minute I thought I was going to learn something.

[OwlHoot]

..and that's it? That's what gives you the right to poke fun at people for being "typical Oracle database hackers"

'kin 'ell for a minute I thought I was going to learn something.

Ah no, this is the insult thread.

To learn something you should head over to the Malaysia Airlines thread and read my posts there ..