If your business is required to be licensed, certified or registered, it is recommended that you contact the appropriate licensing authority before filing with the Secretary of State’s office in order to determine whether your services are considered professional.

Submitted Link #1: http://www.sos.ca.gov/business/llc/forms/llc-5.pdf...

This sounds like a great idea. Like Darla, I am very bothered by those internet people sites (I had a scary ex-boyfriend a few years ago), and I would love to mess up their databases. I have the 2004 edition of HTBI and don't remember any advice on how to do this.

I would welcome suggestions from you or your readers on how to get false/misleading info about myself into those people search websites that sell our private info. Thanks!

For Dani, Re: 7483 -- The S.F. Police Department's website has a lot of info on what to do about identity theft. At the very least, I think you should put a freeze on your credit accounts (and possibly close your bank account if any bank info was stolen, too). You might want to report the theft/loss of your DL now so that you have proof later on if there is a problem. Good luck!

Does anyone know how to obtain smart phone services without supplying any personal data? I may use a nominee if there is no other way. Thanks.

Two hours later a unifomed officer from an "incident" vehicle parked outside a close neighbours house called along the street asking if anything unusual had been seen.

I told him the lads description and car registration, he asked my name and I gave my stage name.

At this point he said someone from CID would later want a full statement and may ask if I am willing to stand as a witness.

What next? Social responsibility (and it could have been my house) and blow cover or refuse to say more and possibly let the criminality continue?

will be subject to ca $800 annual fee?

how do i go about registration,license, and tags of the vehicle driven here in ca where the title is in nm llc?

how do i go about holding title of real estate in ca in a nm llc without being subject to foreign filing and the $800 annual fee. please reply

... Let's see if some kind Californians can answer at least one of your questions.

Also, when I was in the military, the count was done through our units, so if you live near a military base, you could tell any census visitors that it was already accomplished that way. Am not sure if that is still a current way of doing it though. Any active duty care to comment?

Yes, they will. For about 90 days, in escalating form, including sending supervisors to intimidate you with threats of $5000 fines. Keep ignoring them.

Keep in mind though that only two people have ever been fined, and they were anti-census advocates in the sixties, and they paid about 50 bucks each.

Don't know about you, but my privacy is certainly worth that.

... Hmmm ... I think the cop may legally require your true home address. Perhaps some law officer out there can help clarify this.

JJ is correct. The state, (most states anyway) require that you provide your true residence address on your DL. There are numerous reasons for the state to legitimately know your true residence, including service of process for DL violations, and jury duty, which uses current DL information (among other data) to select for jury duty.

Most, if not all states make it a legal requirement to have your true residence address on your DL, and make it a crime to falsify that information on the application.

Cops can ask you anything they want during a legal contact, particularly regarding your identity (the SCOTUS has affirmed their right to do so and your duty to give them truthful information) and it's generally a crime to lie to them. It's routine to ask "is this the correct address?" in order to verify when writing a ticket, because they want to know where to find you if you miss your court date.

It does you no good whatsoever to argue "privacy" to a cop on the street. He doesn't care, and moreover, you just raise suspicion, which will mean more delay and more chance of being arrested. He DOES have authority to demand your true place of residence, and it's futile to try to avoid giving it to him once he's become suspicious that the information on your license is suspect. If you get to that point, you're screwed, and you have two choices: tell the truth and give him the correct address (good idea), because he MIGHT check it out; or lie and give him a ghost address (risky), which might get you charged with several criminal offenses if he gets it in his head to give you a thorough checking out, which some cops do when they are bored.

You need to make these decisions ahead of time and rehearse your answers so they are boring, credible and what he expects to hear. Anything that raises his suspicions is going to be trouble for you, so decide how much risk you're willing to take, and then practice, practice, practice the techniques of privacy till they become second nature.

Best plan: Drive carefully and prudently and don't get stopped.

... I underlined the last and best sentence. I finally convinced myself--a few years ago--to pay more attention to speed limits. Haven't been stopped since.

JJ wrote: I congratulate your parents on how they demonstrate their love for you by keeping you away from pitfalls while still in your teens. Some day you will thank them but not, perhaps, until you are in your 30s."

As a former police officer and detective, I heartily concur with JJ on this, Tracy. I know all your friends are doing it, and you feel excluded and like your parents are being domineering, but JJ is right, they are just trying to protect you.

You are young, and the young are prone to making mistakes. It's expected. It's normal. Most of the time it's harmless. But the Internet is a very, very dangerous place for kids, and what you put on the web can come back to haunt you decades later.

You don't yet have the skills to properly manage a social networking site. I'm 56 years old and I'm not sure I do. I have a Facebook page under the pseudonym I use for writing, and I am constantly dealing with friend requests from people I don't know, in particular pretty young women (who are actually fat, bald, ugly, cigar smoking men) who want to "get to know me." They are universally attractive and willing to do sexual things (which is a giveaway), and very persuasive, but they are all scammers trying to wheedle information out of me, and were I not a trained police officer and natural skeptic, it would be easy to be drawn in by one of these scams, as many older men are every year.

If mature adults have difficulty fending off scammers, how successful do you think a sixteen year old girl would be at protecting herself from creepy old men masquerading as cute young guys who tell you how hot you are based on the photos you put up and thought were private, but didn't end up being so private once they hacked your account because you used an unsecure password? Did you know that there are whole porn sites out there specializing in naked photos of young girls stolen off of hacked Facebook pages?

I have been involved in some computer child porn investigations, and I can tell you that the number of innocent young girls who have been duped into taking their clothes off on a web cam are so huge that there's an entire INDUSTRY out there dedicated to cajoling young girls, some much younger than you, into posing nude. They can be very persuasive, and threatening.

Over time (and pedophiles are nothing if not persistent once they find someone to obsess about, and will take YEARS to "groom" them for abuse), if you put up enough information on a Facebook page, including innocent photos of your house, your cat, your mom and you standing next to your new minivan, information about the school you attend, like a photo of you in your cheerleader outfit, innocent comments about where you live that, when combined with ALL of the information you put out on the web, can, and often does, reveal your name, your address, your phone number, your parent's phone number, your email address, their email addresses, the car they drive, the license plate, the color of your house, who your friends are, what their names are, where they live, when they are in a particular place, and photos of everyone you know, and all manner of other information that, aggregated together and analyzed by someone who wants to victimize you, will lead him directly to your front door...or to the mall, where he might approach you and demand that you go with him to a motel where he can take dirty pictures of you by threatening to harm your mother, your cat, your sister, or your friends.

He will intimidate you by showing you their photos, telling you their names and giving you information proving that he knows where you live and everything necessary about you and your family for him to make good on his threat.

And you know what? You'll go with him, and you'll do whatever he asks and be lucky if dirty pictures are all he takes, because you will have given him control by putting information out into cyberspace that never should have been there in the first place. And your life will never, ever be the same.

If this sounds scary, it should, because it is. I've seen the sad results of exactly the scenario I just described, perpetrated on a 13 year old girl who was fortunate to avoid being raped and murdered. Her photos can still be found on the web more than 10 years later.

Trust your parents. They love you. They want to keep you safe. And read JJ's book yourself, so that you understand the risks that they face trying to keep you safe, and then HELP THEM to keep you, and your family safe, by NOT giving other people information they don't need to know. Begin living a life of privacy today, and you will be far ahead of the game once you grow up and head out on your own as a confident, smart, privacy oriented young woman. Now, go apologize to your parents, tell them you realize now you were wrong, and that you love them and appreciate their efforts to protect you. Give everybody a kiss and be glad you dodged a bullet.

Well, pressing lips is always a good idea, but when asked "is this address correct," say "yes" and then press lips together. You volunteered information which he did not need to know because you felt guilty about using a ghost address. Quit feeling guilty. The address is "correct" in that it's the address that you chose to have on your license. Whether it is LEGAL is a different question. He didn't ask you (until you raised his suspicions) "where you sleep every night" (which is not the legal definition of one's legal residence anyway) he asked you if it was current, and it was...according to YOUR criteria for "current", which is the current ghost address you are using.

If you're going to do this privacy thing, you have to learn to answer a vague question that's nothing more than a fishing expedition in the first place properly, giving the minimum information legally required without raising suspicion. Think what the average innocent person would say when asked that question, and give that answer as if it were the truth. And if you're going to falsify your DL, which is a crime, then you are going to have to learn to lie convincingly about it.

Since, in some states, making a false statement to the police is a crime, you could invoke your 5th Amendment rights, but that would just make him more suspicious and you'd be detained longer, and might end up with a perjury charge for falsifying your DL application.

The best way to deal with this is to go rent a room in a flophouse flea-bag transient hotel on the worst street in town for a day (you never have to actually stay there, just fill out the paperwork and take it with you as evidence of residence, and toss the key inside before you leave) when you go to get your DL renewed, truthfully give the address of the motel as your residence address. If asked if it's your permanent residence, say "That's where I'm staying right now" (and nothing else), which is a truthful statement, listen politely to the admonition that you must change the address on your DL within X days of moving, say thank you, take your DL and then "forget" to change the address. If stopped, you can truthfully give the Steve Martin Defense, "I forgot," and promise to change it right away. Be prepared to give ANOTHER address (say that of a friend or your ghost address or another flea-bag motel) if you get a ticket or the officer asks, and if necessary tell him you're staying there temporarily because you're in transit, or homeless. Keeping a laundry basket full of old clothes and some garbage bags full of "stuff" in the back seat will enhance this claim, but be sure not to authorize a search of your car if asked.

Never, ever give them your true address however, remembering that you are making a false statement to the police that could potentially get you arrested, but also acknowledging that you're willing to take the risk and accept the consequences of getting caught.

Best plan: Drive carefully and don't get stopped. Oh, and check your taillights AND your license-plate light, a perennial law enforcement probable cause favorite (and completely legal) justification for a pretext stop.