I guess I’m posting this because I’m sitting here in front of an Amazon order my wife made of a paper shredder.
Don’t get me wrong she’s fun loving, easy going, and just relaxed…except for protecting our privacy. Ever since we started living together four years ago it’s always been a point that we needed to tear up any and all documents that we have that has our name or address on it. Like tiny tiny little pieces.
And then her emails, plural, are all gibberish strings of numbers and texts and the password system she has is pretty much, “Yeah when I log in I have no idea what my password was so I reset it every time. More secure that way.”
And because she’s been seeing me slack when discarding my own documents (because I honestly don’t care and doubt our neighbours do either), she figured an easy to use shredder in the kitchen is the best way.
Talking to her about it, it’s because she is deathly afraid of ID theft and simply doesn’t like others possibly knowing our address. And it’s been something instilled in her from her own family. That it was fine however I discarded my own stuff before but now that it’s our place I needed to become a CIA agent as well.
I find it kinda cute, but I’m still also a bit flummoxed that I’m going to have to move some appliances around right now to find a place to fit this shredder…
37 comments
Just wait until you spend 23 days in jail because someone found out your address and sent you drugs from another country.
Sounds like she might of had a stalker in her past… but probably will never know with all the secrecy and all.
My husband shreds anything with our name and address on it. I dunno about the password stuff but the shredding thing isn’t too abnormal I guess
> we needed to tear up any and all documents that we have that has our name or address on it. Like tiny tiny little pieces.
And you didn’t try burning the little pieces afterwards??!! *gasps*
Does she refuse to trust credit cards or online banking as well? Keep all cash in a safe in the house?
Totally common in Japan.
My wife is exactly the same (well OK not tiny pieces).
But she certainly insists all trash has been made devoid of any identification before disposal.
I mean everything she is doing we do at work. She is probably in the right for most of these if your really want to follow good privacy hygiene, but maybe over kill for the average person who really doesn’t have a whole lot to steal.
Wait till she finds out her privacy is being sucked away when she goes online.
I’m kinda like that, or at least I try to. But my reason is that nobody identifies my garbage bag, and complains about how I’m not separating the trash properly lol
I wish
This is likely because there was media coverage about people looking into trash and stealing ID .
I had ex like this but not to that extent. She burned paper. But she was totally lax with passwords outrageously lax.
Though since then I shred or tear addresses and important documents I don’t need.
Shredding is pretty normal. Unfortunately lots of crazy out there so it is always better to not make it easy to get your details. Already saw people scooping through trash. Also stalkers are quite an issue even if you are male you should worry about. Better be safe than sorry.
My partner (Japanese) is the same. Shreds everything.
Was completely aghast when I just tossed a shipping label in the trash.
I run two small companies so she is even more aghast if it’s anything related to that.
The 5000 I spent on a shredder was money well spent to avoid further aghastness.
I mean, my parents are regular British people and we always had a shredder in the garage to dispose of private information. I think it’s fairly normal and a good idea. I don’t have a shredder now but I bought one of those rolly stamps that obscure the address on anything I throw out. Takes two seconds and I worry less about identity theft.
Although , when I first moved into an apartment in Tokyo, the garbage men went through our bag, found our address, and returned the garbage because it wasn’t sorted properly. So there’s also that.
I cross out my name and address with a thick black marker, after I caught the neighborhood busy-body going through my garbage. So yeah, shred away.
It’s not just identity theft (though that was enough reason for my family when I lived in my country), in Japan it’s not that uncommon for some random old person just open your trash and check if everything is right for disposal. It’s better if they can’t easily find whos trash it is.
I shredded anything I considered sensitive through a crosscut shredder in Canada. I haven’t bought a shredder here but my wife will tear the stuff up into small pieces.
Time for her to get a password manager
In my university we got an e-mail talking about the importance of keeping research data private, giving us 3 choices of methods to dispose of private research documents:
1- Not so private: shred and put on the recyclable bin by yourself.
2- Very private: shred and put on burnable trash by yourself.
3- Most private: Tie everything with a string and leave in this corner on the corridor, in public view of anyone, where **once a week** someone will take it to be dissolved in a bath of acid.
That’s when I learned bad data safety in Japan is not limited to the digital realm.
Funny. That’s what I do and my Japanese wife is way more lax about it
I shred all the important documents before tossing them too…
And I use the random passwords my iPhone or Chrome generate for me. Is that weird..?
Coming from a SE Asia country where privacy is not really a thing, it’s wild reading the comments in this thread.
Mine is like that, but because of me: I used to work professionally as a skip tracer (*i.e.,* a person hired by [legal] money lenders to find people who’ve stopped repaying loans) and know picking through trash and physically piecing together ripped up papers is a basic step in work of that sort.
Regarding paper, we go farther than simple shredding if, for example, a credit card number is on it. We’ll cut any identifying information with scissors, making sure to cut addresses, names, and other unique identifiers so the numbers, kanji, or other identifying information are not recognizable from one part, then sort the scraps into different piles and put them into different disposal bags. Escalating, we might throw one pile out one day and another on the next trash collection day. We’ve even gone so far as to sort bits of old credit cards and the like into several different piles and dispose of each one in a different physical location (*e.g.,* at home, at a couple of different convenience stores, and so on).
We take an analogous approach to backing up computer passwords. We periodically hand-write two lists of them, then cut the lists in half. We give half of one list to someone we know in Japan to take care of and the other to another person the first person does not know. We also mail a half each to people in other countries or other parts of Japan to take care of.
We also, of course, habitually give very slightly differing names to any company that requests one so we know who’s leaked or sold our information; before I moved to Japan I always did this by changing my middle initial; now I might switch one *katakana* that still gives roughly the same pronunciation.
Long ago I used to chew up scraps of paper I didn’t want anyone to see, but I’ve stopped that. It’s all kind of fun, truth be told.
My dad and also my bf are strict about this too. You never know i guess. Better to be safe than sorry even if it’s a pain in the butt.
My mother is Japanese and does the same. Didn’t think it was a Japanese thing until I read this thread. I always thought it was a smart thing to do, I’m just too lazy to do it.
I don’t understand everyone’s obsession with shredding here. I just toss everything without any worry. If anyone wants to steal my identity with no money, no assets and a bunch of student debt, have fun with that? Lol.
I see you haven’t met any Gomi Goblins yet.
We destroy anything with our names or address on it before it gets thrown out. Just like we use a VPN or use different emails for different things.
Given how many people like to go through other people’s trash, it doesn’t seem weird at all.
I also have a shredder for private documents and address labels. My wife is lazy about it so she just puts all her stuff in a folder and I shred it.
Maybe you can just tell your wife to shred your papers.
The local obaachan mafia will go through your garbage so I understand the feeling of wanting to shred.
Buy her 1password subscription for birthday 🙂
I have a shredder next to my working desk, and I made a point of tearing any personal information out of any documents before tossing them to the bin.
I also work in fintech, and have read enough horror stories about identity thief, so YMMV.
Shredding documents with personal information is a good habit to get into. For passwords a password manager like Bitwarden is best.
Identify theft is real. Using social media platforms and just browsing online leaves massives traces of you already.
I am all for privacy. It usually comes at the cost of convenience.
Shredding documents isn’t such a huge thing – given the number of honestly creepy old people who just go through garbage because they have nothing else to do, it makes sense.
Plus a ton of the documents have a ton of personal information on them as well….
We shred, too. You can’t be too careful.
Same. I agree as I’ve heard stories of psychos going through others’ trash for reasons such as finding the trash is not sorted correctly, then throwing the garbage bag in front of the owner’s door for the crows to eat it. Really bizarre, so just look out for yourself.
I shred pretty much anything with my name/addy on it as well. Not a big fan of garbage snoops
I think shredding is pretty common in America too in my experience