• BarneyPiccolo@lemmy.today
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    3 hours ago

    My mom saves up all her junk mail, and takes it to a neighborhood shredding event 2 or 3 times a year. She gets distressed if she misses it. She doesn’t understand why I just toss it all away.

    I’ve asked her why she thinks her junk mail address is so valuable, and she’s afraid they will fall into the wrong hands. I’ve explained to her that if it’s on junk mail, it’s already out there being sold. It’s just her name and address, it’s a public record.

    I get why she’d want to shred stuff with her SS# on it, but another AARP solicitation?

      • BarneyPiccolo@lemmy.today
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        1 hour ago

        She’s got one, but she thinks the trucks will shred better, and the shreds wont be in her trash where people will know where they came from.

        I should note that my mother lives in a gated, active adult community, and there is literally ZERO crime in her neighborhood. If someone started going through someone else’s trash, you’d have a half a dozen busybodies demanding to know what you’re up to.

    • CrackedLinuxISO@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      1 hour ago

      I’m in the habit of shredding everything.

      a) It’s so fun to watch a stack of mailers turn into confetti

      b) Deniability. If I only shred important documents, then all my shredded trash is now important. If I shred everything, nobody knows how much of it is important.

      Mostly A though. I’m not yet worried about someone trying to reconstruct my shredded trash.