this post was submitted on 07 Jun 2024
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Reminds me of: https://www.wired.com/story/null-license-plate-landed-one-hacker-ticket-hell/
A guy thought it would be funny to change his license plate to NULL.
So to combat our horrible privacy culture we should name everything null...
hi my name is null, null.
Fun until you want to get a mortgage or something ๐
But maybe you won't need to with all the inheritances you'll get from rich people who died with no children ๐
The key is to get the mortgage before then when you are null your debt will be null triggering their system to automatically send the deed to your house!
Hello there null Im doxing you now You live on null street in nullsvile in wouldntyouliketoknow lane house number 12345
:D
who would query null users though?!
TBF it is one of many incidents that have brought more attention to databases used by government institutions that cannot handle NULL as a string. Another instance involved a man with the last name Null who was getting tickets from multiple vehicles he didn't own and states he didn't live in, because whenever the name field was left empty it went to NULL.
It's really not a citizens fault when the system breaks so easily.
I am not blaming the guy.
I think it's a good thing if attention is paid to these things. However if I remember correctly it took quite a toll on the guy dealing with all the government BS.
(That's why it wasn't funny.)
Meta: Writing stuff online is quite something. When I wrote my comment I did not even consider that it could be interpreted as me blaming the guy for challenging bad government it systems. In a conversation this could easily be rectified with a quick exchange. ( I could have picked up the expression on the other persons face. ) All kinds of context clues are missing. Also I don't know if this will be actually read by all people who passed by and also understood it that way. I am glad that it wasn't something serious.
And he was right.