Home address

[davidjohnson6]

When flying, airlines, hotels and all manner of other companies want my home address. Sometimes I can get away with leaving this blank, but web forms often won't take no for an answer.
I've got into the habit of giving out a fake, non-existent address so as to lower the risks to me when the company's IT systems are inevitably hacked or data leaks out for whatever reason. Claiming loss through GDPR and the UK ICO is far more trouble than it's worth. GDPR enforcement in many countries by Govt often seems very weak

In the last 10 years, the only airline-originating post I've received has been duty free magazines encouraging me to order alcohol or tobacco in advance of travel. Besides wanting to sell my data, or send me better targeted advertising, are there any good reasons as to why an airline or hotel really *needs* to know where I live ? The only decent reason I can think of is credit card fraud - but airline websites often want a 6 digit verification code from the card issuer at the time of purchase, which pretty much negates any card fraud excuse

[Asturias56]

Credit cards often check against home address when buying on line - other than that its marketing

Its also wise to hide your home address on your luggage - anyone on the bus/train/ checkin line can see it and know you're going to be away for a while.

[Hartington]

I think you will find that some of it is related to credit card verification and the rules that credit card companies impose. In the UK, under certain circumstances, the card companies won't approve a transaction without the post code. Yes, that's as well as the two factor authentication.
If I were an hotel operator I would probably like to get your address just in case they have to evacuate the hotel and you don't make it out; they can advise the police who can advise your relatives. There are also some governments who have to be told by the hotel.

[PAXboy]

I agree that most companies want data for no good reason. Perhaps they think it will be useful for marketing or to sell - I do try to restrict what I give out. Last night we went to a pub restaurant (which I had booked online) and today they wanted a review. I was prepared to do so until the feedback form asked for my postcode. They wanted to know where we were from. The form required it. I could have put in a false one but decided to ditch the feedback all together.

[SpringHeeledJack]

Business address is the solution, but not for those travelling privately. Perhaps some form of pre-authenticated info would work, rather like being able to sign-in to various websites/apps using Apple/Google/FB etc ID's ? There are way too many risks these days from weak servers and hacking. Only today I read of the millions of DNA info leaked onto the dark-web by the hacking of '23andMe this last year, some of it belonging to the Windsors apparently.In the past it would be deceitful to put 'fake' info for yourself, these days it's almost foolish not to in many cases.

[PAXboy]

Increasingly, banks and card companies want to check that it is you by sending an SMS or using the app to verify. Then you can ignore address. I have noted the full address and postcode of my local health centre and they often get marked up. If the website won't budge without an email address, I have a spare that is a bottomless pit.

[SWBKCB]

Aren't airlines etc collecting the data to be transferred to the appropriate authorities in the destination country? Supplying incorrect data might raise red flags

[PAXboy]

When dealing with airlines, they get correct data as I have booked directly with them.

[SWBKCB]

But the OP stated that he puts in a "fake, non-existent address" when booking with airlines and hotels.

[S.o.S.]

But the OP stated that he puts in a "fake, non-existent address" when booking with airlines and hotels.
Well dj6 what do you say to THAT?! :}

[davidjohnson6]

Sonetimes I use a real address to which I have no connection... if they want a real address that passes verification check I sometimes use Buckingham Palace or 10 Downing Street in the UK. I thought during summer of 2021 post-Covid when everybody wanted to know where I lived in case they would have to come to my home and tell me I had been within 100 metres of somebody a week ago in the supermarket who might have had Covid and thus I have to quarantine immediately that these addresses would distract the busybodies. Any serious Govt body (eg police or MI5) will likely find me very easily.

Hotel receptionists are often sufficiently amused that I gave my address on a reservations website as "999 Fake Street, London, UK" that they don't ask for a real address.

Very very occasionally I have to make up a real address - "42 Station Road, London" will usually suffice as being sufficiently vague as to be impossible to use.

A UK mobile number of +44-7987-654321 will usually get past any phone-number-check algorithm on websites if necessary.

[SWBKCB]

Which is fine if the information is being collected for marketing data, but if it is going for official use and they decide to cross check the data, or have algorithms which check for obviously incomplete or false addresses...

[davidjohnson6]

Which is fine if the information is being collected for marketing data, but if it is going for official use and they decide to cross check the data, or have algorithms which check for obviously incomplete or false addresses...
If I get a call from the police... I'll give them the real address - but they probably know what it is anyway. Otherwise, we're likely talking jobsworths and busybodies of no consequence.

Earlier this week, I got caught out in a (rather authoritarian) country when the passport number given to the airline as ID for my flight out of the country didn't match up to the passport number I was using on the visa to enter and exit the country (I was carrying 2 passports at the time). A bit of sweet-talking to the police officer who caught me out and his superiors... and all was resolved within the hour. Admittedly the police did decide to escort me to the aircraft door to make sure I definitely left but it seemed relatively good natured. Even in countries which don't tolerate any sort of free speech, the authorities have bigger things to worry about than the home address of a tourist.

[Asturias56]

That's fine in theory but every country has its jobsworths and something like non-matching numbers is god-send for them as you can't really argue - the numbers or the dates don't match , they're right and you're wrong. How wrong depends how much they want to push it.

having spent several hours in durance vile in C Russia I can vouch for the irritation caused. Luckily I was sprung by the local Aeroflot manager who came in and beat on them until they handed me over...............

[IBMJunkman]

One should/must supply real data to the Department of Motor Vehicles for drivers license and car registration. The problem here in the colonies is some states sell DMV data to marketing companies.


Which is fine if the information is being collected for marketing data, but if it is going for official use and they decide to cross check the data, or have algorithms which check for obviously incomplete or false addresses...

[PAXboy]

Not just in the colonies. The 'mother' country have made much money by selling our data. Sometimes you have to look carefully to make sure to tick <or untick> the correct box.

[Saintsman]

I've had calls in the past where there has been an issue with the hotel and they were not taking guests.

One, which happened to be a Premier Inn, had already booked me into another one close by and asked first if that was okay?, then giving me the address of the new place so my journey was not interrupted.

The last thing I would need is to travel half way round the world and upon arrival at the hotel, find out that there is a problem. Much better fore-warned.

So there are good reasons for wanting genuine information from you. It's not all for marketing.

[S.o.S.]

At the other end of the scale and a slight thread drift. {That's OK, I approve. [signed] S.o.S.}

A finance company I do business with, I needed to change something on my personal profile. I was glad that they wanted two step verification to ensure that it was me and that included a pass-code sent to my mobile.

After I had logged in, I went straight to alter the item and the site then asked for two-step verification and sent another code to the same mobile phone as they had two minutes earlier. Given that their system could easily tell that it was the same me, on the same computer, in the same session? Their IT systems are often so cr@p that they need multiple entries of address and other data. It would not surprise me that they cannot keep track of clients and might easily have multiple address' for one.

[Asturias56]

Senora A worked for a very large financial institution

When they decided to move/upgrade their systems the effort required to solve inadvertent duplication of ID's was immense - accounts for the same person were (at various times) logged primarily by Surname, FIrst name, initials and surname , post code, first line of address, the guy who'd sold the product, the company that had sold the product, DOB............................

I think they eventually went to a big Indian IT outfit who had some superb software that trawled the data bases and sorted it out. But that was a team of 15 people working for a year. In the end the real problem was that old legacy data bases kept popping up - seemly totally undocumented but still plugged in and beavering away in the background.

[25F]

Fake mobile numbers are unlikely to get past validation services such as this one:
https://www.data-8.co.uk/solutions/data-validation/phone-validation/

[DaveReidUK]

Fake mobile numbers are unlikely to get past validation services such as this one:
https://www.data-8.co.uk/solutions/data-validation/phone-validation/

It doesn't sound as if it does CLI validation.

[PAXboy]

If the software only checks that the number entered fits within the the parameters for a given country - then it can be fooled. In the UK, it is well understood that all conventional Landline numbers start with '1' and mobile phones numbers start with '7'. The range available to each group (117 = Bristol, 1702 = Southend on Sea etc.) is published and if the number entered falls within that range, then it is a valid number. Whether the number is in use, or belongs to the person entering it - is another matter.

For software to correctly identify a number, it needs to contact the number by means of a test call or SMS. The latter is more difficult if it is a landline, further if it is an extension from within a company where inbound access is via a switchboard.

Therefore, I strongly suspect that the software mentioned above only checks the parameter of the number. Certainly, my own experience of occaisionally giving a false number bears this out.

Sorry if it is a long explanation but I was in voice based telecommunications for 27 years and could elucidate further.

[25F]

@PAXboy, I write and maintain web apps and have experience of using this; it does more than just check if a number is within a published range. I have just run a quick test (to double-check what I remember):
[TelephoneNumber] => 07306 xxxxxx0
[ValidationResult] => Valid
Change last digit to 1:
[TelephoneNumber] => 07306 xxxxxx1
[ValidationResult] => Invalid
A similar test with a landline had it go from "Valid" to "Ambiguous".

Full details here:
https://www.data-8.co.uk/resources/api-reference/phonevalidation/isvalid/

[Uplinker]

Why do companies need our phone number ? So they can ring you if there is a delivery problem ? More likely so they can compile a database. But hackers can also track a mobile number if they have hacked the mobile phone networks.

Problem these days is that giving out one's address and phone number goes onto an electronic data base accessed via the internet, which means that any hacker in the World potentially can grab that data, and as the OP says, most things get hacked eventually. Good secure sites allegedly have extensive encryption, but who is to know whether their software is kept updated or has any "back doors" to allow government agencies to check for money laundering etc, and whether hackers have discovered those back doors?

Obviously if you are having something delivered, you need to give your home address, ditto to verify your credit card.

But I don't give out my mobile number - they don't need my phone number. They can contact me if they need to via my email address.

A site I was using yesterday seemed to have a list of valid numbers, and didn't accept a made-up one - even one with the correct number format. If a spoof phone number is not accepted, I usually put in the company's own contact phone number.

I also have a cheap old "throw down" phone with a pay as you go SIM card, which I bought and top up anonymously with cash. I use this if anyone I work freelance for requires me to download unsecure or data grabbing Apps in order to work with them, but which does not have my name or any personal data stored on it. If push comes to shove, I can use that number.

[PAXboy]

25F Thank you for the further information, very thorough of it - and you!

Uplinker I agree about the databases being broken and certainly know of my email adrress in a breach from a data-selling company I knew not of. As I am self employed, all my work comes in (now) via the mobile. Mainly as voice calls but also SMS and W'App, so I always have to answer my phone as new clients are not known to me. However, I have become adept at dodging the junk calls. The biggest giveaway is the slight pause before a human comes on the line, when the computer has got an answer.

This method I commend to all: If they have also got my name correct - "Is that X... Y...?" The reply is, "No, this is his son, what do you want to speak to him about?" This is said in a 'tense' voice. They are then likely to hang up. If they start their blather: [sounding angry] "My father died two days ago - remove him from your list." and in the stunned silence - hang up.

When I have given this reply when friends are around - they are somewhat taken aback, as they know my father is dead and I do not have a son ... :}

[25F]

PAXboy, most welcome. Regarding the junk calls I have a variety of responses, but most of the time I decide to string them along for five minutes while I make a pot of tea. And in fact today's victim (after I had safely inspected the website she wanted me to go to, and told her that it looked like some dodgy javascript) quite literally said "thank you for wasting my time".
Sometimes I ask if their mothers are proud of them doing what they do. I've asked what their religion is and then asked how that squares with being a thief. I've had the occasional "real" conversation - perhaps them in tears. Or replying to my question about how much they make from a successful call. But I think the best was when I was asked for my name and I replied "Jack Grealish". (He'd been in the news). "Jack Grealish the footballer?". "Yup". Then a foul-mouthed tirade using the same sort of phrases he no doubt regularly hears. So I went on the offensive - by being polite, calling him "sir" and asking why he was being so rude to me? Then he calmed down and bizarrely we ended up talking about cricket... great fan of Joe Root, apparently.
But if I am keeping them occupied they're not ripping off someone who might believe they really are from bank / ISP / etc.
Another great response I've heard used - "oh, I've been expecting your call".

[ShyTorque]

I’ve often declined to give out my contact details when buying from shops. One shop in particular (Halfords) requires its cashiers to ask for an email address “for the receipt”. Even for stuff like a tin of paint. I always decline to give one, whereupon they issue a till receipt.

The question is, for the receipt of what? Junk mail?

Another one is Curry’s. In the past I returned from a few years overseas and wanted to buy a job lot of household appliances. The cashier insisted that I give my address because I was buying a TV and then tried to tell me that it was a legal requirement (which it’s not). No guessing who would be given my address. I didn’t want them to come knocking on my door. Rather than get into an argument, I gave a false address. We do buy a TV licence, but it’s in my wife’s name.

[PAXboy]

I do support the idea, 25F, of stringing them along but - frankly - I feel sorry for the drones who are trying to make money and get them off the hook without being angry at them. If I could speak to their masters? Then that would different.

[IBMJunkman]

The moment I realize it is a spam call I say “No Thanks” and hang up. I have better things to do with my time. Even if it is to just contemplate my navel.

[FUMR]

I use a response very similar to one of 25F's. I quietly ask if their mother would be proud of them trying to scam people and then just hang up.