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Comment by Robotbeat | Hacker News Reader

The federal government in the US has pretty strict regulations with regards to PII (personally identifiable information). But apparently Florida doesn’t.

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The USPS sells address updates in bulk for marketing purposes, and they are federally regulated.

Direct Marketers must have your name and prior address in order to receive your updated address. So they are providing updated PII to those who already had your prior PII. You can opt out.

The USPS makes only a few million from selling this data but saves over a billion dollars by avoiding the cost of forwarding mail sent to prior addresses.

The USPS is allowed to do this under an exception for it in the Privacy Act.

Thank you for clarifying. Is it possible the data brokers themselves are buying the update and then selling it onward then? During my last move I received a boat load of direct marketing mail after my COA but before I updated any other accounts / license (took a vacation before arriving at the new home). Many companies I'd never heard of, included some health insurance scams.

If you purchased a new home that public record of sale tends to be the source of a bunch of spam - often claiming to be important mortgage documents.

If you were renting it's possible your landlord or management company provides information on new residents for 'cost saving offers'.

Indeed. That's why the federal government agencies hand over the PII to lowest-bidding contractors and subcontractors who then proceed to abuse and leak it.

This is generally true about most subjects, not just PII.

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