MeroviusMay 23, 2023

PSA, if someone asks you for contact info (e.g. a phone number) of someone you know, the correct response is "I can't give that to you, but I can give them yours".

It's efficient and adds no round-trips, it's privacy friendly, it's non-awkward and it's social engineering resistant. It's a universally good rule.

And the corollary, of course: Don't ask someone for another person's contact info - ask them to pass on yours.

Show threadMerovius
It's frustrating that not everyone knows and does this. Like, even in my peer group, where I'd expect baseline awareness of privacy issues, a friend recently gave my number to another friend without asking.
May 23, 2023 at 7:59pmWeb
Show threadOlavMay 24, 2023
@Merovius yeah, I've had to politely decline and offer to pass messages in the past: I know you know each other but that's not a reason.
Besides, I'm not sure how up-to-date my contact list is now, but my address list is sacred and I'd only divulge if I thought someone were in danger of harming themselves. Our holiday card list is upwards of 170 people, some.of.which would put their families at risk
Show threadeuroplus May 24, 2023
@Merovius ouch.
Show threadlike jam or bootlacesMay 24, 2023

@Merovius

were this better established and respected, "Give ThisApplication access to Contacts" would never have gotten off the ground.

Yet here we are, where it's industrialized, personal data strip-mining, matter-of-course.