Constant need to "verify" devices

[Amethyst]

Yes; it's called Intelius, and it makes mistakes, such as associating me with a person I haven't lived with since 1979! Sometimes I worry what he may have been up to in the intervening decades, because he had my SSN.

Those multiple-choice questions are creepy. I've gotten ones about a car I owned in the early 1980's and an apartment that was so long ago, I didn't even recognize the address at first. They must catch a lot of people who are experiencing cognitive impairment.

Is there some sort of creepy Big Brother verification company that aggregates EVERYTHING?

 

[marko]

Oh, what are we talking about people being wrong here?

I had to look up the thread, to see we were talking about Chrome.

The poster stated that they "would never use Chrome". I took at as an implication that it was viewed as some new-fangled, suspicious item.

I was just pointing out that as the world's most used browser it was hardly an untested software. Not perfect? Sure, but works well enough for most people I'd say.

 

[SecondCor521]

Yes; it's called Intelius, and it makes mistakes, such as associating me with a person I haven't lived with since 1979! Sometimes I worry what he may have been up to in the intervening decades, because he had my SSN.

My Dad and I share a first name and a last name, and we lived at the same address when I was growing up. As a result, our credit histories have become intertwined.

Since we're both responsible people and the credit bureaus mostly get the data points right, it mostly hasn't been an issue.

But occasionally on these identity checks, I have to be careful because it'll ask me a question related to an address or something that is related to my Dad. Over time I've learned to notice these and realize that I have to effectively lie in order to pass the test (by answering as though I am my Dad on those items).

 

[SecondCor521]

I don't understand why the 2 part verification is a problem. I like it and have to do it for most of my financial sites every time I log in. It takes less than a minute. I don't understand what the problem is.

One problem can be - and @Amethyst I think alluded to it earlier - is if the authentication doesn't work the way it was designed to by not lasting as long as advertised - then the user may be concerned that there has been a data breach or identity theft of some kind. Even if there has not been, tracking down whether or not something like that might have happened could mean at least a modest amount of time / effort / stress / annoyance.

At the very least, it's annoying when websites and other tech gadgets don't work as expected / designed / advertised.

 

[marko]

My Dad and I share a first name and a last name, and we lived at the same address when I was growing up. As a result, our credit histories have become intertwined.

There's another guy, my age, my town with the same name...and it's not even a common name! He's a bad egg all his life and I've often had to do some difficult explaining. (One bank president called me aside once demanding that I stop passing bad checks! A classic "it wasn't me! it was him!")

I always have to use my first AND middle initial.

 

[Amethyst]

My dad had the exact same issue when I was a kid, and his name wasn't very common, either. The other man had the same first/last/middle initial, and was even born the same year! Not in the same town, but the same state.

We wondered if the other guy sometimes got the benefit of my dad's determined pursuit of a high credit rating, while dad had to defend himself against being confused with someone who didn't pay his bills.

There's another guy, my age, my town with the same name...and it's not even a common name! He's a bad egg all his life and I've often had to do some difficult explaining. .

 

[Gumby]

When I worked in NYC, there was another lawyer in the city with the exact same name. We practiced in entirely different areas of law, but we would occasionally get each other's snail mail and email. We just forwarded it on to the other. I never did meet him in person although we did speak on the phone.

 

[OverThinkMuch]

I use a VPN and discard cookies when my browser closes, so I see websites forgetting me all the time. When it annoys me enough, I add them to the list of sites allowed to set cookies long term.

There’s no way I would be using Chrome.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/gordon...-exploits-upgrade-chrome-now/?sh=3346a37e61a7

Well don't leave us hanging - what's the security rank of each popular browser?

I'm using Chome now, but have used a couple other browsers in the past.

 

[braumeister]

When I worked in NYC, there was another lawyer in the city with the exact same name. We practiced in entirely different areas of law, but we would occasionally get each other's snail mail and email. We just forwarded it on to the other. I never did meet him in person although we did speak on the phone.

There's a guy in Canada who uses an email that is one character different from one of mine and I used to get emails for him all the time. I would dutifully forward them until one day he sent me a note that they weren't really important if the sender couldn't be bothered to get it right, and I didn't have to worry about them.

Since they were all related to his self-employed business, I thought that was a mighty cavalier attitude, but it was his call.

Back on topic, I use the Symantec VIP app on my phone for half a dozen different sites, and never had an issue with it.