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submitted 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) by activistPnk@slrpnk.net to c/tor@infosec.pub

A builder who renovates homes sent me a huge quote for a big job by emailing me a link to a website apparently using some fancy platform they outsourced to for the simple job of giving a work quote. The idiots could not possibly fuckup such a simple task more badly. I try to visit the link and get a CF block page because I use Tor.

Must say, it’s sad that there are so few Tor users in the world that perhaps they never had a customer of a customer who uses Tor. And likely many Tor users don’t even bother with activism.

What I did (and what all should do)

Left them a voicemail saying “can’t reach your quote because I am blocked. Plz print it out, fold it up, stuff it into an envelope addressed to me, and pay the postage to send me the quote the old-fashioned way”, in so many words, b/c obviously they¹ are incompetent with technology. Will be extra funny if there are gen Z office workers who cannot handle the job of printing a doc and mailing an envelope in the post. I will be happy if they have to pay postage to send me a quote as a penalty for outsourcing to an incompetent tech supplier who cannot handle a simple job of passing along a quote.

WTF is wrong with people.

¹ by “they”, I mean both the contractor and the outsourced firm. But it’s fair enough that the contractor is incompetent with tech. Absolutely unacceptable that the firm they outsourced to is incompetent.

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[-] blarth@thelemmy.club 4 points 2 months ago

The actual crazy thing here is you thinking it’s normal to route all your traffic through tor all the time.

[-] activistPnk@slrpnk.net 1 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

That’s only crazy from the standpoint of normies w/out an infosec background. If you have an infosec background, then you understand and appreciate the principle of least privilege. It is foolish to disclose more information than necessary for a job. You do not need to give up your IP address to obtain a quote for work on your house, so why should you? It’s foolish. Why do you think knowing my IP address is required in order to furnish me a quote for some work? It’s rediculous, of course.

Normies, of course, do not know these basic concepts. They have a naive take on security -- that you should only use security if you need it. Smarter people (infosec ppl) rightfully find the opposite - that you should operate securely by default, and demand justification for absence thereof. If I am giving up security and exposing myself more, I need a reason. Anyone who thinks otherwise is not competent with security.

Getting a quote on a renovation job is not a good reason to leave a more secure network for the clearnet.

I happen to have a machine that actually does not work on clearnet. But that’s besides the point. Even if clearnet worked for me, I would not see justification for using it in this circumstance.

this post was submitted on 26 Apr 2026
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