mumblegrepperFeb 26
Cassandrich

PSA: The Amazon wishlist doxing threat is much greater and more immediate than folks might realize. Attack works like this:

Stalker who wants your address opens an Amazon seller account and lists themselves as a third party seller for any item on your public wishlist. Then, they order the item from themselves as a gift for you. Bam, they have your address.

In particular, attack does not depend on an existing third party seller having poor PII handling hygiene, like the articles have implied.

Feb 26 at 2:43pmWeb
Show threadCassandrichFeb 26
The only mitigations are refraining from using public wishlists entirely (set any wishlists you may have to private) or using a PO box or reshipping service to conceal your real physical/final address.
Show threadCassandrichFeb 26
Note that even PO boxes are not particularly safe against a dedicated stalker. They can stake out the PO for someone picking up a distinctive package once they know what PO it's at.
Show threadKat the LeopardessFeb 26

@dalias I live in a rural area of my state. This means that everyone living here has to get a USPS PO Box

We get the double edged sword of

...dealing with entities and online vendors that do not accept our PO Box address as valid.

...but also that we are still suceptible to the privacy issues despote that our mail doesnt come to our physical location.

Show threadtoerrorFeb 26
@dalias Or just mail you a tracker.
Show thread✧✦Catherine✦✧Feb 26
@toerror @dalias this. even my stalkers are not dedicated enough for potentially multi-week stakeout, but an apple tag is super easy
Show threadErik JohnsonFeb 26
@dalias Thanks for the heads up on this. Deleted all my wishlists and set the default to private.
Show thread a HOT Rubie Feb 28

@dalias

For those interested, USPS has an optional service for PO box holders to use the post office street address to receive packages from Amazon, UPS, FedEx, couriers, etc.

Amazon accepts a post office street address, as well as a PO box, for deliveries, as do most, if not all other carriers and couriers. The exceptions to this may be for insured, bonded, recipient-only, or other such restricted deliveries.

Some Amazon sellers do not ship to PO box addresses but the post office street address seems to be acceptable.

The post office acts as agent to sign for packages if necessary and packages are held for pickup at the post office for some number of days.

The packages are delivered to the post office and do not go to the regional sorting facility. As far as I know the USPS does not permit forwarding of packages to other addresses.

Many post office box lobbies are visible from the outside, where people can loiter and watch a box or boxes of interest for people to collect their mail. Loiterers are usually easy to spot.

And that is about as much as I know about it.

Show threadRay McCarthyFeb 26
@dalias
Never make a "wishlist" public, or share it.
Show threadDarwin WoodkaFeb 26

@raymaccarthy @dalias

That would be nice, but a lot of people are using them as teachers for classroom supplies now or charities using them to get donations of supplies they need.

Show threadRay McCarthyFeb 26
@darwinwoodka @dalias
They can share what they need as an item that the donor buys? No need to share an account's "wishlist".
Show threadMatthew MillerFeb 27

@raymaccarthy @darwinwoodka @dalias

That's.... what a "wishlist" _is_.

Show threadCassandrichFeb 27

@raymaccarthy @darwinwoodka The idea of a wishlist and the store letting you buy items on someone else's wishlist for them is that it's privacy-preserving for the recipient. They don't have to give their address out to people they want to be able to receive gifts from. Only the store that they already shop at and that already knows their address gets to see it.

What Amazon has done is broken that promise - the whole purpose of the wishlist system - by letting third-party sellers (to whom Amazon needs to disclose the recipient address for shipping purposes) in on wishlists. Now anyone wanting to get your address just needs to sign up as a third-party seller.

Show threadErikFeb 26
@raymaccarthy @dalias true and even if this is how 'streamers' and 'content creators' grift, this is also used as a tool for mutual aid.
Show threadCassandrichFeb 26
@erikcats @raymaccarthy I'm not sure how accepting gifts from ppl who enjoy you entertaining them is "grift".
Show threadErikFeb 26
@dalias @raymaccarthy i'm sorry, probably too jaded - milking parasocial relationships goes into the grift pigeonhole immediately. Your phrasing is a lot more generous, you're right
Show threadaxolotl solidarioFeb 26
@dalias id go a step further and recommend people stop making Jeff Bezos richer in general.
Show threaddraNgNonFeb 26

@dalias so to be clear, just setting the lists private is an immediate mitigation?

I haven't touched this feature since... apparently 2020 (and have only ordered one thing from Amazon since WaPo declined to endorse Harris and I dropped Prime like a hot potato). if I can take it private now and reconsider the existence of these lists entirely when I have more time to do so, that is better for me.

Show threadCassandrichFeb 26
@draNgNon That's my understanding.
Show threadOoze 𓁟Feb 27
@dalias Deleting your account will 100% solve the problem.
Show threadCassandrichFeb 27
@Ooze It will but I'm offering up missing critical information on safety not my opinions on their life choices. And "deleting your account" is one form of "refraining from using public wishlists entirely" anyway.
Show threadDent, Arthur DentFeb 26
@dalias Thank you for sharing this.
Show threadMx. Eddie RFeb 26
@dalias
It appears the change will roll out in Canada in March.
I've deleted all my public wishlists.
Show threadAndrew ZonenbergFeb 26
@dalias was this not already possible? like i'm not sure how wishlists would work if the seller didn't know how to ship the product?
Show threadCassandrichFeb 26
@azonenberg Previously you could select that you only accept gifts fulfilled by Amazon. They just took away that ability.
Show threadAndrew ZonenbergFeb 26

@dalias aha, ok.

I miss when amazon was a way to buy books directly from them and that was it...

Show threadAndrew ZonenbergFeb 26
@dalias (and I also hate the tendency of everything from walmart to digikey to turn into a "marketplace" lately. At one point you could buy oscilloscope software options on walmart's website because TEquipment had a storefront there)
Show threadAndrew ZonenbergFeb 26
@dalias just make a store to sell your products, and let me know i'm buying from you, a company i presumably trust to some extent. that's it, do one thing, do it well
Show threadRexo the Trans Bus 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️🚌Feb 26
@azonenberg @dalias why would they take that away 😨
Show threadCassandrichFeb 27
@rexo @azonenberg To improve wishlist metrics and appeal to third party sellers.
Show threadAlex RFeb 26
@dalias every single engineer I've seen talking about this has immediately identified this attack, so it's guaranteed that this will be exploited right away if it goes ahead (and also that Amazon absolutely knows about it)
Show threadCassandrichFeb 26
@alex They obviously knew about it since the beginning. That's why gifts were limited to fulfilled-by-Amazon. Then some piece of shit manager with no understanding of safety wanted to make the sketchy marketplace more lucrative to sellers to compete in race to bottom.
Show threadAlex RFeb 26
@dalias exactly. They could also have trivially made wishlists with that setting private, which would at least limit the immediate harm, but that doesn't goose the wishlist metrics
Show threadMason Loring BlissFeb 26

@dalias I'm hoping we can use this opportunity to get people off of Amazon.

https://partychickens.net/@mason/116128064084123138

Mason Loring Bliss (@[email protected])

Public service announcement: Amazon hurts people. If you use Amazon, you're okay hurting people. Here are some references. There are many, many more. 2024: Why Amazon Is Bad for Society: Examining the Hidden Costs of Convenience https://www.historytools.org/consumer/why-is-amazon-bad-for-society 2023: Exclusive: ‘I Feel Like I’m Drowning.’ Survey Reveals the Toll of Working For Amazon https://time.com/6248340/amazon-injuries-survey-labor-osha/ 2023: 41 Percent of Amazon Workers Have Been Injured On the Job, New Report Finds https://cued.uic.edu/pain-points/ 2024: Amazon’s Biggest Delivery: Millions of Pounds of Plastic Pollution https://www.foodandwaterwatch.org/2024/07/03/amazon-plastic-pollution/ 2019: 10 Ways Amazon Violates Human Rights https://greenamerica.org/blog/10-ways-amazon-violates-human-rights 2025: Why So Many People Are Boycotting Amazon: 11 Major Complaints Explained https://www.marketingscoop.com/consumer/why-do-people-hate-amazon/ 2023: The Local Harms of Amazon and What State Lawmakers Can Do About Them https://www.economicliberties.us/our-work/the-local-harms-of-amazon/# 2025: Amazon's Environmental Impact: Unpacking The Harmful Effects On Our Planet https://shunwaste.com/article/why-is-amazon-bad-for-the-environment 2024: Amazon workers struggle with injuries and low pay despite company’s profits https://prismreports.org/2024/06/05/amazon-workers-struggle-injuries-low-pay/ #amazon #boycott

Mastodon
Show threadNu ModularFeb 26
@dalias A couple of guys I trained with in martial arts, are in a paramilitary group, and are now planning a para-doxing welcoming committee.
Show threadThe Shaking EarthFeb 26
@dalias holy shit, wow. I appreciate that heads up. Thank you.