Frank does not think of himself as a crypto investor. Three years ago he bought a modest amount of Bitcoin through an exchange app on his phone: set up in an evening, recovery phrase on a sticky note, life carried on. The sticky note has since disappeared. The account still has value. His wife, Sarah, … Read more
You have probably had your mobile number longer than your current address. It sits on old forms, in doctors’ files, in a hundred contact lists. For most of its life, it was just a way to be reached. Somewhere along the way, without anyone deciding it, that number became something else: the master recovery key … Read more
The call came from the school in the middle of a workday: Lily’s phone had been stolen. Frank called the police, and the officer asked three ordinary questions, the three every stolen-phone police report needs. What model is the phone? What is the serial number? What accounts were logged in? Frank is 42, an operations … Read more
When Frank’s father died, the hardest lock was not the safe. It was the email account. There was no notification list, no password trail, no record of which services the account controlled. The bank sent a reset link nobody could open. The utility company wanted a code from an inbox nobody could reach. Three weeks … Read more
Somewhere right now, companies you have never heard of are selling a file on your family. Data brokers assemble it from public records, loyalty programs, app permissions, and each other: names, addresses, phone numbers, home value, approximate income, who lives in your house, plus guesses about your health or politics inferred on top. Nobody asked … Read more