How sensitive is a passport number actually? At first glance it seems like it should be, but is it actually? I honestly don't know.
ethan_smith · 21m ago
Despite being from 2020, this vulnerability persists in 2025 with many airlines still exposing sensitive data on boarding passes and luggage tags, making "don't post your boarding pass" still relevant security advice.
Love the humor. I am a fan of Alex's writing style!
LorenDB · 16m ago
It's a shame he apparently no longer blogs. His posts are gold.
ViscountPenguin · 11m ago
They/them based on their socials (and iirc, I think that's what they went by at Crikeycon) https://x.com/mangopdf
santoshalper · 1h ago
Really interesting, but the writing was so bad I had to bail out halfway through.
Bjartr · 17m ago
I think it was all written for the thing it was trying to be. Which is a casual humorous take on the journey this person went through with a little tech education sprinkled in. Any more formal or sophisticated and it would've lost some of the casual humor and been less an interesting journey. But did so in a way much less aggravating than what qualifies for a food recipe these days.
tomhow · 51m ago
> I had to bail out halfway through
Telling us you didn't read the article is exactly the kind of unsubstantive comment we don't want on HN. The comments thread is for people who did read the article and have something to say about the content.
This kind of comment breaks the guidelines particularly these ones:
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Finding a former Australian prime minister’s passport number on Instagram (2020) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34966909 - Feb 2023 (41 comments)
When you browse Instagram and find Tony Abbott's passport number - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24488224 - Sept 2020 (340 comments)
Telling us you didn't read the article is exactly the kind of unsubstantive comment we don't want on HN. The comments thread is for people who did read the article and have something to say about the content.
This kind of comment breaks the guidelines particularly these ones:
Be kind. Don't be snarky. Converse curiously...
Don't be curmudgeonly. Thoughtful criticism is fine, but please don't be rigidly or generically negative.
Please don't fulminate. Please don't sneer....
Please respond to the strongest plausible interpretation of what someone says, not a weaker one that's easier to criticize. Assume good faith.
Please don't post shallow dismissals, especially of other people's work. A good critical comment teaches us something.
Please don't complain that a submission is inappropriate. If a story is spam or off-topic, flag it. Don't feed egregious comments by replying; flag them instead. If you flag, please don't also comment that you did.
Please don't complain about tangential annoyances—e.g. article or website formats, name collisions, or back-button breakage. They're too common to be interesting.
Please take a moment to remind yourself of the guidelines and make an effort to observe them in future.
https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html