40 Bits Of Knowledge People Learnt That Feel Almost Illegal To Know, Shared In This Online Group
People realized that knowledge is power very early on and the phrase is often attributed to Sir Francis Bacon, an English philosopher and statesman who served as Attorney General (1613-1617) and as Lord Chancellor of England (1617-1621).
Not everyone possesses the same knowledge, but not everyone is allowed to. At the same time, there are things that you think you shouldn’t know because it’s not your place, but actually it’s not classified information, it just sounds like it.
If you would like to hear some examples of such information, this list contains all sorts of cases when people think that it’s almost illegal to know what they know. The thread started when craftygalcreates asked “What's a piece of information you learned that now feels almost illegal to know?” In two days, the question got almost 40k upvotes as people were interested to read the secrets that are not really secrets.
More info: Reddit
This post may include affiliate links.
When I was a kid, my dad taught me how to pick a lock. I became very interested in different kinds of locks and purchased a lock pick set. I practiced for years and became pretty good at certain types of locks. So over the years every now and then, if a neighbor locks themselves out of the house or a friend loses the key to a padlock or a lock box I’ve been able to help. But the reactions I tend to get from people, even while I’m helping them with their lock is mainly one of mistrust. I’m not a cat burglar. I just like locks.
Well I'm in med school and funny enough learning how to not kill a person involves learning about a s**t ton of ways to kill a person
(This is England knowledge, other countries may vary) If you are struggling to pay bills, make water the first one you skip. Access to water is protected by law so the utility supplier cannot cut you off.
You can ask scientists for their research paper that you usually have to pay money to view in a journal. They are allowed to just email it to you no questions asked and they like to do it!
Totally another route of what everyone else is posting but.... the lion at The Animal Kingdom safari ride isn't chained (Disney World park). He is fed a huge piece of meat every morning and sits on a rock that is changed to the perfect temperature for him everyday so he has no reason to attack anyone on the safari ride.
Unionization saves you more money than it costs you, you cannot be punished for attempting to do so, and it is NOT in any way illegal, rude, or improper to discuss your salary with your coworkers.
It feels illegal because every company on the f*****g planet has tried to make people think unions are evil monsters trying to get you to pay union dues for no return. This is false because union dues are much less expensive than a company underpaying you and trying to work you to death, which a union fights against. Unions are there to prevent worker exploitation, stop it if people were being exploited when they got there, and get you a fair wage that will actually let you live off of one job instead of needing 4-5 or to work criminal amounts of overtime.
Not "on the f****ing planet...Only USA..in Italy we have "sindacati" and it's a normal thing..
Creating Nitrogen triiodide. When in liquid form it is stable but once it dries so much as a fly landing on it creates a purple smoke explosion. It's so unstable that alpha radiation can be used to detonate the stuff.
It's actually easy to get the materials and create the stuff. Filled my high school hallway stairs with purple smoke on the last day of school.
Police are allowed to lie to you. So are military recruiters.
One thing I learned is in the state of California if you are squatting a property for five years and have been upkeeping it with proof, you can file a claim of ownership with the courts and take over any property as long as it was deemed that the original owner never tried to remove you within the same timeframe.
It is legal to grow opium poppies in the United States, but only if you don't know they can be used to make drugs
Read a personal finance book that recommended calling your providers once a year (credit card companies, TV/internet providers, cell phone company, etc) and demand a lower rate or price. I’ve been following that advice for two years and have not been denied once.
Last week I saw a commercial for my internet provider offering a super low introductory rate so I called to demand that I get that rate. They said no problem and now I save an extra $700 a year because of a 5 minute call. I am a very passive introvert so it’s not the most easy or comfortable thing but the money I save is worth it. They may so no initially but if you ask a few times or ask to speak to their supervisor they very usually give in.
*Edit the book is called “I Will Teach You to be Rich” (cringey title, awesome book imo)
I call bs. When has a call to an internet company ever lasted less than a half hour.
Hospitals have but don’t tell you about a program to reduce your bills depending on how much you make. You can go to their website and find a usually hidden link for financial assistance policies and really cut your bill down
Well, I gave my 9th grade chemistry class a detailed report on diacetylmorphine (heroin) for a project about organic molecules, including how to make it. It was pretty interesting to do and fun to present, but I feel like I broke the law somehow.
When you have a debt with a collection agency you can pay the debt and then call back a few weeks later and say, “I was told when I called and paid that you’d remove this from my credit score.” And then you ask for documentation saying they’re gonna do it. Apparently collection agencies don’t keep super good records on stuff like that; they just want your money. It worked for me, and I hope it can work for you if you need it in the future.
There is a book called "100 deadly skills" that teaches you how to do all sorts of potentially illegal stuff
I don't know if it's still a thing, but if you listen to Pandora radio the songs download into your temp folder under your browser. Just add the. Mp4 after it and you can play it.
I spent lots of college listening to Pandora, and if I liked a song I'd save it. If you paused the song in time then the most recent song was the top one in the temp folder.
In Canada you can record any conversation with someone without their knowledge, unless it is in furtherance of an offence.
I had to do this with an auto restoration shop in order to do a Visa chargeback when they did nothing to my car but steal parts for almost a year (Curtis Customs in Nova Scotia - I don’t mind mentioning them because there are already news stories about their scams)
EDIT: A lot of replies from people possibly misreading. If "you" are recording a "conversation with someone," you are part of the conversation and would be the consenting individual (one party consent). It's definitely wrong and illegal to record just any conversation between two or more other people
Yeah, my wife had a disciplinary at work, I bought her a USB pen (not admissible in court) but she used it to transcribe. The audio distorted slightly when her boss started shouting at her though (she sued and won for constructive dismissal).
When companies ask for your name/age/sex/race/occupation/salary/etc. you can just lie.
You’ll never be able to remove the information about yourself off the internet, but you can muddy the water quite a bit.
Aluminum foil can block the thefts detection signals in super markets.
Confidence can open a lot of doors. A lot of times, you can get away with more with some swagger than you otherwise would being meek about it.
90% of home locks are easily pickable with a little know how and a couple pieces of metal.
Despite this, most burglars either find an open window or break the glass. So locks are generally effective at their intended job.
That in Ireland there is no legal age to get tattoo. Legally you can tattoo a newborn as long as the parents consent. We can get done for bodily harm to a minor if their is no consent. We have an industry standard of 16 with parent or 18 with ID. I'm a tattooist in Ireland.
I worked for a giant tech company and apparently share the same name as a very high up hardware engineer, got put on email threads I definitely didn’t belong on.
Had a co-worker who made me stalk my boss. Found out he had a girlfriend and was paying for her apartment. Felt awful every time his wife called. Kept my mouth shut though. Looking at you Cliff D.
I had a stats prof who used to work for the US government. I'm not sure exactly what his job was, but it definitely involved evaluating the status and readiness of nukes, both ours and the USSR's (he was probably at least 70 and had been retired from that job for a while). One day in class he just started talking about the percentage of nukes that fail (ours and theirs) and why they fail and all kinds of other, seemingly sensitive, information. I don't think he would have told us anything classified, but his personality was boisterous and irreverent enough that I am not sure. I literally expected a team of spooks to bust down the door at any minute and drag us all off for interviews in windowless rooms.
someNSFWprofile said:
How to make a few different drugs. Organic chem at uni
xk543x responded:
How to make many illegal drugs
Freelance Pharmacy institute of research and testing
LittleOrangeBoi said:
When you're on a jury you can vote for someone as innocent even if you think they did it. Most common reasoning for this would be if you just think that they shouldn't be punished for whatever they did. I can't remember the term for it something like Third Option.
rjlupin5499 added:
Jury Nullification. It's definitely a thing in the U.S.
In regards to military grade bombs and missiles, it takes actual effort to make one go off on the ground. Like, you literally have to go out of your way to arm the fuse, then sit around for a timer to detonate said bomb.
Its not like in the movies, where a soft breeze or some nutjob with a hammer, will make a bomb just explode for no reason.
You can say no when cashiers ask for your email or phone number.
Yeah I say no all the time; I do not want companies blowing up my inbox
No sht. You also don't have to do what the guy in the Federal Boobie Inspector tee shirt says either.
Why would a cashier ask for your email or phone number? Is this a US thing?
You get it at a lot of retail clothing shops in the UK - they claim it's so that they can email your receipt but it's just to spam you. I always refuse. From their reaction to that I'm guessing most people just give them the info.
Load More Replies...
I've started doing this when I realized it's just for rewards points or sending you spam emails. Used to think I'd get rejected from the store if I didn't give them any info.
the problem is that they use this to call up your order if you lose your receipt & have to take back a defective product and want cash back.... you can't do that if you decline to participate
Nope! Just bring the receipt back - all the info is there, they do not need to store it under your name. Unless you did opt into their loyalty program and do want the points etc.
Load More Replies...
Some stores ask for postal code (Canada) for marketing. I give the postal code of the building they are in. They will have nothankyou@domain.com entered in your profile ;)
All the stores I shop in have the same postal code as me. I don't think that's for personal info.
Load More Replies...
I don't understand people who think they have to give information to almost everyone. Off topic: You're only required to give your SSN to banks, your employer, and governmental agencies. Any other company asking for it (including health institutions), tell them to pound sand.
Yeah, it seems many people feel that if someone asks for something, they are obligated to give them that thing. I remember being surprised on some message board when the topic came up of not wanting to answer a door to a stranger: many responders felt if anyone knocked on their door, they had to answer or they were being "rude."
Load More Replies...
I do this all time. Well, not all the time, sometimes I use fakes just for variety.
What I like about this post is the fact the cashier can actually sit down whilst at the till. You will never see this in Australia.
If they ask me a second time, I say wither, "Yeah, I work in retail too but I usually don't shop here and I don't want the spam." Or, (and only when there is a manager nearby), "If you ask me again, I'm going to leave without buying anything." The management needs to report back to HQ that we hate it... the customers. We hate hate hate it...
Right? Like, that's none of your business! If I wanted to be part of your "membership club" I would have signed up by now.
Good lord, I am imagining a German cashier having to do this. The poor people. Myn Germans are obsessed with privacy and won't even give the postal code that is sometimes - very hesitantly - asked for statistic reasons. Customers would freak out at them.
Anytime a company asks me for an email, I just go " I haven't got one." or " ... what's an email?"
JB HI-FI in Australia ask if they can send your receipt to your phone. I always say no and ask for a paper receipt.
It doesn’t matter if they have my phone number or not because unless I know who is calling I never answer my phone. With emails, what’s another one. Currently I have over 48,000 emails I haven’t read
at my job we only do it so we can look up your receipt if you loose it. otherwise you only get store credit
When a Walmart greeter asks for your receipt when you are leaving, you don't have to show them. Pretty sure this is also true for any retail establishment. Membership clubs being the exception as it is a requirement of the membership agreement you sign.
More interesting is that even though there is no federal statute mandating that a private business, a person, or an organization must accept currency or coins as payment for goods or services. Private businesses are free to develop their own policies on whether to accept cash unless there is a state law that says otherwise. Some States have enacted laws that force a business to take cash. This became a hot topic in some States as a response to the pandemic.
I always ask if I can get a discount if I give them my zip code. It seems fair, as that kind of information can increase their sales and profit. The cashier always says no, so I say no also.
It's a shop. They can ask for it but they have absolutely no right to your info. And if you're signing a returns receipt, either don't sign your own name or don't sign your full name. Similarly, in some airports, passengers are asked for boarding passes when buying soft drinks or confectionery. This can also be refused. It's only needed when purchasing alcohol, tobacco products and duty free items.
For a phone number, it's for a check. That's the only reason they would ask. Of course, only weird people use checks at the grocery store these days so it's unlikely you'd be asked. If you didn't write a check, give them nothing.
D'uh.Or they will refuse to take your money in exchange for one of their overpriced items? Yeah, that's not a workable business model!
And when you come in for that warranty exchange or return with no receipt, I'll just tell you, "Sorry I have no record of you buying anything from us." Guess you should have given your name and number for a customer profile.
Or I can hang on to my receipt and your company can go without selling my data.
Load More Replies... 
1284x is a Ford fleet key. Not chipped, can be found on Amazon for $7 and perfectly legal to replicate.
Searching "1284x" filetype:.pdf site:.gov
Will pull government bids that involve that key, and also show you what agencies you could open up or drive away a police car.
The last airplane you rode was likely assembled with parts not fully conforming to qc standards but passed through inspection anyways.
Can confirm. I have friends who work at Boeing and they say that the QA people and the Manufacturing Line people are always butting heads.
When you do a kfc survey you get free food, you can do them over and over again Steps- go in the survey site, it’s usually (franchise)listens on google Next enter a random code and keep refreshing for a good 15 seconds, then do anything on the survey because they don’t care, then just show them your code at the register, they also have to do it because it’s part of their job, this also works for crispy cream and other places to, don’t do it heaps because it’s sorta scummy (but enjoy)
If you rent out your home for 14 or fewer days a year, you do not have to pay taxes on this income….Section 280A(g) of the Internal Revenue Code
Regardless of the amount of rent? "No I didn't win the lottery. Someone rented my house for a million dollars per night."
Most large retail employers don’t have a policy against recording your interactions with your bosses.
The tricks doctors use to distract you when they’re trying to check your reflexes
How to make Thermite. I don't know why, Thermite itself itsn't actually all that useful or destructive. It burns hot sure, but it's not going to melt anything very well without a proper vessel to contain and direct the heat into the thing you want to melt.
The Ukrainians have found that it's good for permanently parking Russian tanks
51 is divisible by 17
What the inside of a British post box looks like
My (now long time latent) anxiety disorder made me realize some truths about life, nature and our place in the universe that I don't discuss with others to not bring them existential despair. I'm doing OK by the way.
I have to keep a lot to myself too. Hugs to you, if you don't mind accepting them. It's a bit lonely sometimes, isn't it?
Load More Replies...
The small dirt lot down the street from me has a water spigot coming out of the ground. That's where your "bottled at the source" Northern California spring water comes from. Big tanker trucks pull into this dirt lot off the street and connect to this little pipe with only a padlocked little fence around it and fill up with my town's water and then sell it in fancy bottles for $$$$$
That's gotta be a big spigot. Most tankers fill from 4-6 inch lines because a regular spigot would take something like 50 hours to fill a taker truck.
Load More Replies...
In Ontario Canada a resident of a long term care home cannot be evicted for non-payment. The LTC can remove perks like cable and move you to a cheaper room but cannot make you leave. If you really want to play it smart one could give their kids most of their money as an early inheritance (also saves taxes since it is a gift) and keep enough to pay only a few months. Hopefully the kids will spend money on a good ipad and internet plan for you and buy you some nice meals
Former long term employee of a large sporting goods company. When you go to any store to get a regular soccer, football, volleyball, ect. it doesn't matter what brand you get. Nike, Wilson, Spalding, & many more meant for stores in foreign countries ALL come from the same manufacturering plant in China. It was relatively common open a box of "our" deflates only to find a competitors product in the box. So unless it's 'An Official Game Ball' (ie made of real leather) then it doesn't matter what brand you buy it's literally all the same. Just pick the design you like best the Brand Name means nothing.
We don't pay for water in Northern Ireland it's part of your house rates ,, only farmers pay what they use for livestock plus the area I live in the mournes there's a old folk tale that because of the men from mourne built the biggest dam silent valley that supplies most of Northern Ireland if it did come to us paying we would be exempt
In the USA you can buy and drive a 18 wheeler on a class c driver's license if you are not using it for commercial use. (Like taking it to the store to get one gallon of milk.)
A lot of tgings on the internet that are somehow legal, but have damaged me
I used to have the Anarchists cookbook on disk (Amiga text files). I never tried anything on it and lost the disk years ago but you would most likely get into a lot of trouble just having a copy these days.
In the US if you want to avoid taxes on a small amount and you trust your spouse, you're allowed to make a one time gift to them of up to 30K tax free as long as it goes into a separate account just in their name. You can really give it to anyone, but the recipient then doesn't need to claim it on their taxes. So if you trust your spouse, give it to them and file taxes separately. You'll lose other benefits of filing jointly, but if you don't have kids or really benefit greatly from that filing, then you can keep gifting 30k to each other every year and take it out of the bank and hide it under your mattress or whatever.
My (now long time latent) anxiety disorder made me realize some truths about life, nature and our place in the universe that I don't discuss with others to not bring them existential despair. I'm doing OK by the way.
I have to keep a lot to myself too. Hugs to you, if you don't mind accepting them. It's a bit lonely sometimes, isn't it?
Load More Replies... The small dirt lot down the street from me has a water spigot coming out of the ground. That's where your "bottled at the source" Northern California spring water comes from. Big tanker trucks pull into this dirt lot off the street and connect to this little pipe with only a padlocked little fence around it and fill up with my town's water and then sell it in fancy bottles for $$$$$
That's gotta be a big spigot. Most tankers fill from 4-6 inch lines because a regular spigot would take something like 50 hours to fill a taker truck.
Load More Replies... In Ontario Canada a resident of a long term care home cannot be evicted for non-payment. The LTC can remove perks like cable and move you to a cheaper room but cannot make you leave. If you really want to play it smart one could give their kids most of their money as an early inheritance (also saves taxes since it is a gift) and keep enough to pay only a few months. Hopefully the kids will spend money on a good ipad and internet plan for you and buy you some nice meals
Former long term employee of a large sporting goods company. When you go to any store to get a regular soccer, football, volleyball, ect. it doesn't matter what brand you get. Nike, Wilson, Spalding, & many more meant for stores in foreign countries ALL come from the same manufacturering plant in China. It was relatively common open a box of "our" deflates only to find a competitors product in the box. So unless it's 'An Official Game Ball' (ie made of real leather) then it doesn't matter what brand you buy it's literally all the same. Just pick the design you like best the Brand Name means nothing.
We don't pay for water in Northern Ireland it's part of your house rates ,, only farmers pay what they use for livestock plus the area I live in the mournes there's a old folk tale that because of the men from mourne built the biggest dam silent valley that supplies most of Northern Ireland if it did come to us paying we would be exempt
In the USA you can buy and drive a 18 wheeler on a class c driver's license if you are not using it for commercial use. (Like taking it to the store to get one gallon of milk.)
A lot of tgings on the internet that are somehow legal, but have damaged me
I used to have the Anarchists cookbook on disk (Amiga text files). I never tried anything on it and lost the disk years ago but you would most likely get into a lot of trouble just having a copy these days.
In the US if you want to avoid taxes on a small amount and you trust your spouse, you're allowed to make a one time gift to them of up to 30K tax free as long as it goes into a separate account just in their name. You can really give it to anyone, but the recipient then doesn't need to claim it on their taxes. So if you trust your spouse, give it to them and file taxes separately. You'll lose other benefits of filing jointly, but if you don't have kids or really benefit greatly from that filing, then you can keep gifting 30k to each other every year and take it out of the bank and hide it under your mattress or whatever.
