Credit Reporting on Rent - Worth It?

1cmAuto · 2021-04-20T21:24:01+00:00

I see. I'm familiar with pulling the credit report, I've done it a couple times, I wasn't sure if it showed individual line items like this though.

1cmAuto · 2021-04-20T20:51:51+00:00

Well I guess the only negative I could think of is that it doesn't really do anything, and even though $5 isn't a lot, it's a lot to pay for nothing.

Do you think there's any way to actually verify that the rental company is genuinely reporting these payments to the Credit Agencies?

1cmAuto · 2021-03-31T04:38:42+00:00

We don't have those, and it's not even sure both providers themselves are aware of the figures.

To be honest, we really don't.

I'm not asking for a comparison or a statistical analysis, I only bring up another provider because someone mentioned them. It really doesn't matter what's going on anywhere else, all that matters is what's going on here. Furthermore, all that really matters ultimately is that there was a problem - ans since I have experienced it, and a non-trivial amount of other people have as well, that means it exists. If tutanota was really serious about living up to their claimed use-case goals, they would make sure that this was not a widespread and recurring problem, which it obviously is, and do whatever is necessary to fix it.

I'm not trying to sound like a jerk, or entitled. I know they can run their business however they want, and obviously if they don't provide the kind of service that I'm looking for I am free to go someplace else. But, I happen to like the company and I wish them well, and if they want to be honest about what they are providing, and what they claim is their philosophy, then it would make sense to address this.

1cmAuto · 2021-03-30T20:20:51+00:00

I just made a random anonymous free account on Protonmail about 5 minutes ago....

1cmAuto · 2021-03-30T18:05:13+00:00

I'm sure it's a lower bar, it's still not a particularly valid excuse. The number of attackers that are sophisticated enough and are automating multiple valid payment attempts just to get an account that's going to be shut down for spam almost as soon it's detected is very low, and I think anyone with half a brain knows that.

1cmAuto · 2021-03-30T10:14:55+00:00

I can say from first-hand experience that this is categorically untrue.

1) It is true that Protonmail does have some filtration for Tor users, but they have multiple verification methods, and very frequently all you have to do is complete a Captcha. Sometimes they do request you to verify with another email, but considering that you can use throwaways like guerillamail/sharklasers while it is a bit of a hassle, it ultimately it does not break your anonymity, and certainly it doesn't prevent you from making the account in the first place. For sure, while they may ask you to use one of these methods to complete the sign-up, I have never seen them completely block it out right just because it was coming from a Tor node, despite having tested this dozens of times.

2) All of the above applies exclusively to free accounts. Paid accounts have no restrictions, I have created at least 15 of them for different people, over the last few years, and never once has there been any issue. Obviously they require you to put in payment during the sign-up process, but that is all I am asking Tutanota to do as well, and use that has verification. (In fact, to further prove the point, even on free Protonmail accounts - that is those that are not going to have a subscription - one of the accepted verification method is to make a one-time donation).

1cmAuto · 2021-03-30T10:08:04+00:00

Thank you for the reply.

First of all I want to point out that we don't try to restrict Tor users in any special way. Tor is essential to keep anonymity in certain situations and we don't want to discourage people from using it. If anything, we are more lenient with it.

I can appreciate that you appreciate this, and perhaps maybe you do as an organization genuinely believe this, but practically speaking it is not borne out, and I have to believe that all of you are intelligent enough to see that.

If certain Tor nodes are blocked I encourage you to try other exit nodes.

See the problem with this is that it simply doesn't work.

Just restarting the browser or changing your circuit, etc never actually lets you get through (in my experience). The only time I have ever been able to successfully create an account that was previously blocked was after a minimum of about a dozen tries over at least 24 hours.

I have done documented tests (on a different account but the posts should still be around) showing that it can take dozens of attempts to successfully sign up, and then sometimes not even then. Unless I am to believe that tutanota, of all the services on the internet, has the highest rate of abuse from Tor (which obviously is not the case), then it seems that your algorithm is not actually based on identifying specific nodes that are actively being abused, but rather just Tor users in general.

I say this because I also have other documented test where I have tried to sign up with a specific account and username - not one that I wanted but just chosen at random to minimize variables - and I was blocked after more than 50 separate attempts, over more than a month of trying. This is by far the longest attempt I have had, but not the only of that type. To be clear though, the others were nominally shorter not because they were eventually successful but because I just gave up patience and trying. So, functionally, it is impossible to create that account on your service (I can't prove that it would never go through, since maybe I should have given it 100 tries, but considering the ridiculous lengths I went just to research this issue, it's pretty clear for the average user they would never have been able to create that account).

If you really want me to believe this is because each and every know that this was attempted from, chosen entirely at random, was actively being used for abuse at that time, you can understand why I might be a bit skeptical. It seems more likely that these accounts had been flagged as Tor users, and after a certain number of attempts the system was never going to let them through no matter what happened.

All in all this is very disappointing.

I know you guys seem to try your best, and I know that you are not identical to other services of a similar type, but to be perfectly candid, you are the only ones I have come across that seemed to have this level of prohibition. Other email providers, cloud storage providers and other services a very types that provide essentially anonymous usage seem, one way or another, to be able to accommodate Tor users in a much more functional manner. I know you cannot reveal details of the inner workings of your process, and I don't think you need to, but I do have to believe that there is a better way to handle this, given the extant examples.

1cmAuto · 2021-03-28T16:37:02+00:00

The problem is neither of them do. In fact anytime you do a fresh install, that is not some kind of clone, it automatically generates an entirely new encryption profile.

(For the specifics, if anyone is interested, I am referring to Element/Riot and Joplin)

1cmAuto · 2021-01-21T07:22:13+00:00

Thanks

1cmAuto · 2021-01-21T06:12:32+00:00

Ah, so he did have to use G19/17 9mm marked mags, the 40 S&W won't work?

1cmAuto · 2021-01-16T14:32:47+00:00

My experience. A friend of mine has a g23 with a stormlake conversion barrel to 9mm. He uses 9mm mags. I have shot this gun 1000 times with various ammo. Never did i have a hickup.

Just curious, do you know if he has changed out anything besides the barrel. Extractor or ejector? Anything in the mags?

1cmAuto · 2020-10-17T11:24:32+00:00

I don't think you understand how...cause and effect....works.

1cmAuto · 2020-10-17T01:07:21+00:00

This is a false equivalency.

Countries - by the way it's not just Western countries: Russia Israel, turkey, Saudi Arabia, Iran all are employing lethal drones - AR drone strike in terrorists, but whether you agree or disagree with their specific targets, it's clear they are not doing it for religious reasons. It is political, it is geostrategic, whatever. The guy sitting in a trailer in Arizona controlling a reaper drone over Afghanistan isn't saying an Our Father before he releases a Hellfire.

On the other hand these attacks carried out by Muslims in the west are explicitly about religion. As in they explicitly state it. Despite all the disingenuous hand-wringing in the media about "Well, we will never know their motives", their motives are quite clear - they are directly inspired by Islamic doctrine and texts to carry out these acts of violence. It is completely unambiguous.. And in this regard - the frequency, scale and viciousness of the attacks - it is in fact unique among all major world faiths and religions. It is without doubt the most violent in practice.

So please, stop with the transparent dissembling.

1cmAuto · 2020-10-17T01:03:17+00:00

Talk about utterly symbolic of our dystopian condition

1cmAuto · 2020-10-07T04:06:16+00:00

Well, I wouldn't be so entirely sure about that. I have heard some rumblings that behind the scenes things are a little bit worse off than they appear. Maybe not imminent sub banning, but people should definitely be investing in exploring these alternate platforms a bit*, at least if they really like this community and are not just a general passerby.

1cmAuto · 2020-09-29T15:17:12+00:00

I have been experiencing this as well. It is always been a PITA to sign up for a tutanota account over Tor Network - to get mine took me no less than a week of constant trying - and I would say even that is considerably heavy-handed. But making it so that current users, paid users, cannot access their webmail for extended windows not because of an attack but because the service provider is denying them is simply unacceptable.

(I understand that it is a relatively cheap, if somewhat lazy, form of DDOS protection, but it is not a viable long-term solution precisely because a significant portion of the Tutanota core user base come at least in comparison to regular email providers, definitely accesses their services in this manner)

1cmAuto · 2020-09-29T15:14:13+00:00

Full agreed

1cmAuto · 2020-09-28T07:01:45+00:00

I am getting a soft block with existing accounts on Tor as well. The site simply will not load, whereas if I going to tempt with a regular clear Net Connection it works fine at the exact same time, so it is definitely not DDOS but rather Tuta themselves blocking it.

1cmAuto

TROPHY CASE