It may seem strange or even reckless for me to provide my phone number and physical address. I may be given cause to regret this experiment.
However, my thinking is that since data brokers in the US are currently permitted by law to aggregate public records and sell access to this data, I am already doxxed merely by owning a home, having a driver’s license and passport, being a registered voter, registering copyrights for novels I’ve published, and thus existing in public records. My security is, therefore, already as compromised as it’s likely to get.
After all, the government knows when I masturbate. They know when you do, too.
Why should data brokers profit from my lack of privacy? If you can find out where I live on my own website, you don’t have to give those clowns a cent. Furthermore, you are obligated to provide all of this information when registering a domain unless you pay the registrar an additional fee to obscure your contact details.
Besides, in many European countries website operators are legally required to publish their physical addresses, and I am not aware of anybody suffering violence or harassment as a result. I refuse to live in fear of being doxxed. If somebody wants to doxx me, they will find a way to do so even if I did not publish my address and phone number. Chances are I’ve been doxxed already since both government and corporate databases appear to get cracked on a regular basis. I’d be surprised if I haven’t already appeared on Kiwi Farms, though hopefully I’m not a good enough lolcow to keep their attention.
As far as I know, Chris Aldrich gets away with providing this information, too, but he’s also a white dude like me — just older. Of course, if you are not comfortable with revealing too much of yourself in public you should not do so.
It is my hope that providing this information will let benevolent people more easily contact me without needing the internet, if they want to. For example, if somebody wanted to send me a postcard they could do so. Likewise, if people enjoy my writing and want to express their appreciation financially, they could send a check or money order instead of going through PayPal or Patreon. Who needs cryptocurrency when you have money orders from the US Postal Service, which might be the last vestige of the USPS as a national people’s bank?
I do not, however, expect to receive any such gifts. I would just like to get postal mail that isn’t bills or spam for a change.
Abusive mail and suspicious packages will of course be reported to the proper authorities. I don’t pick up the phone for numbers that aren’t in my contacts, either. I might be insane, but I’m not stupid.