Hacker News Reader

Comment by fmpwizard | Hacker News Reader

Somewhat off topic but, when I simply typed the site bill.com on Firefox's private browsing, scrolled down a bit, they show me a popup to chat and they have my first and last name there. The same thing happened when I went on my cell using Firefox Focus, which doesn't keep any cookies. 1. Anyone else seeing this? 2. I hate it 3. Where do they get this info from?

View on HN

Nothing for me.

This is a Drift chat widget so they have your information stored somewhere, probably from some interaction you had with it on a different site. They also appear to do IP lookup as well.

Thanks, it looks like it is IP lookup, I used another phone (not mine) and they also showed my name there.

ip lookup seems like a weird way to do name lookups...

They probably check the ISP to determine if the IP is static or not, and then map the name if it is.

It greets me as “Hi Dynamic Duo Training! What brings you to Bill.com?”.

I guess my dynamic residential IP is associated with that firm somewhere somehow.

For me it says “Hi there! What brings you to Bill.com?”. Guess that is the response you get when they aren’t able to mine who you are.

I got right into their site, but boy, what a godawful chat popup (which doesn't actually let you chat).

They had my company name there, even in incognito mode

Data partnerships give them your info associated with IP, then LinkedIn lookup gives them your company.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com