“Get off of and stay off of social media. Kill the beast.”
A funny thing happened... I ordered some custom made parts from a specialty manufacturer (keeping it cryptic to protect the guilty). So I put in an order and a few days later I get a rude email with a refund notice. He said, “ I am refunding your order. You are up to no good because anyone who orders these would have an online presence. I couldn’t find anything about you on facebook, instagram, and only your name on a business registry. You are trying to copy my design.”
So even private etsy type sellers are so hooked on social media they won’t sell unless their customers are making fools of themselves on social media too. Facebook has trained its pets well.
I was mostly venting. But I seemed to have hit the nail on the head.
I have checked my own online profiles. All I have is out-of-date info, including 3-year-old physical addresses. This is my only social media.
I buy from Etsy all the time.
Your supplier is paranoid. Or under 35.
I used to hand-manufacture a popular niche item and I _know_ some people ordered from me (cheaper than the retailers I sold to) in order to reverse engineer, but so what? It’s not like anyone couldn’t figure it out anyway and the profit was not insane, either.
Also, I have noticed that most of my friends/acquaintances, family are not checkable online any longer, either. (I think a lot of people have had their online info removed on purpose). It is even difficult-to-impossible to find obituaries. Even the obituary sites that charge for results and use SS databases often return incorrect results. Where I used to live, the local newspaper is run by a regional conglomerate and they mix up the obituaries from 3-4 counties and include people who died in other states or countries.
Hopefully, you have other choices for your parts.