Privacy is a human right. An LLC is not a human - granting it privacy rights is a choice which a government may make for practical reasons, not a moral issue.

One of those practical reasons would be the use you put it to; that reason might be outweighed by widespread use of the same mechanism to shield wrongdoing.

Here we're talking about the privacy of the owner of the LLC, not of the LLC itself. In particular, the owner wants "what LLCs they own" to be private.

To be flip about it, I'd like a pony, too.

More seriously, merely because someone wants ownership of an LLC to be private doesn't mean it ought to be.

But that’s the op’s point. “Just because someone wants their browsing habits/pay amount/address/sexual preferences/etc private doesn’t mean it ought to be.”

Is just as meaningful a sentence and the contrast in tone on hn when it comes to one type of privacy technology (vpn/tor/etc) and another (shell companies) does seem more visceral than logical.

the constitution does not give you a right to a pony.

It does give you a right to privacy, defined broadly as "the right to be let alone". These include the Fourth Amendment right to be free of unwarranted search or seizure, the First Amendment right to free assembly, and the Fourteenth Amendment due process right

It differs from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, but in my one (NZ) you can use your lawyer or accountant as registered office address and address for service. So long as they hold a copy of the share register and other company documents should anyone wish to use their legal right to inspect your share register (it's an old clause, as share registers are also publicly available online now).

Is it not an option to use one of those services that gives you a business address to use? e.g. you hear of hundreds of companies all registered to a single small office somewhere.

When I set up my LLC I used all available ways to protect my name and address.

No reason really, but I guess growing up hearing my grandparents stories about the communist take-over of our country taught me what happens when you are a target because you are publicly linked to your wealth.

I also have an LLC for software and didn't love having to put my address, since I don't have a storefront or anything either, but I don't think it reveals any more info than someone could find from having your name in the first place.

> I'm people. I had a secret LLC.

Your LLC is intangible. It can't do people-y things like shake my hand.

Intangible IP would be something else that isn't people - we're just less confused about that.

In the future, you can proxy the address via a registered agent.

You can rent a mailbox or hire a registered agent for exactly this purpose for trivial amounts of money.

In California, Federal Post Office boxes were not renewed one year after a Federal election year.. "surprise" you need to re-apply for your box.. including details of your automobile registration ? home address of course.. It just so happens there are majority $RACE workers at this Post Office.. walking out of the office is an ordinary middle-class man who is also $RACE .. a quick conversation confirms that the Post Office worker had simply accepted the monthly payment from that man instead of a full review. Similarly-aged middle class man of not-$RACE gets the complete review? yes. true story in the US West Coast

Is the implication here that the feds didn’t already know who leased that post office box from them? And that they don’t have access to state DMV records?

What do you intend for me to infer from your assertion that one individual’s inferred race is more important to a postal worker than that specific individual’s identity or existing relationship with the post office in this case?

And where in the US do post office box rentals last longer than a year? I wasn’t aware that it was possible to lease one for more than 12 months at a go [0]

Are you familiar with Mail Covers? [1]

[0] https://www.usps.com/manage/po-boxes.htm

[1] https://www.uspsoig.gov/reports/audit-reports/postal-inspect...

So someone that isn’t your race went in to a post office make a monthly payment and wasn’t identified, and you went in to make a yearly contract renewal and they identified you using another piece of paper from the government?

Maybe the other man had already had his identity verified when he renewed, or was not doing what you think he was.

Maybe you are seeing a conspiracy where there isn’t one.

Maybe you could have used a bill or any piece of paper with your real address on it if you had asked what other pieces of paper would work.

Maybe I don’t for a minute believe that this is the full story.

Also, you can rent a private mailbox from any of the thousands of places that offer one if you so desire, and not deal with the post office.