Protect Your Privacy

Whitney Hopler

Recent technological advances have made it easier and quicker for people who want to manipulate you to gain access to your personal information. Crimes such as identity theft, credit card fraud, and stalking are on the rise, while marketers track your buying habits to target you with more sales pitches. Even your employer and the government are likely monitoring you for their own purposes.

But you don't have to allow people to pry into the details of your life. Here are some practical steps you can take to protect your privacy:

• Take your privacy seriously. Think about the time, money, and freedom you could lose if your personal information gets into the wrong hands. Realize that, while there's no way you can completely prevent your privacy from being invaded, you can still make a significant difference by adopting a discerning attitude. Rather than giving your personal information out to anyone who asks for it, decide to do so only when absolutely necessary.
• When online, use an e-mail address that's gender neutral and doesn't give away information that could identify you. Use an alternative, free Web-based e-mail address for any posting to bulletin boards or when participating in chat rooms or newsgroups. Conduct a search on your name in search engines every now and then to discover what information is available about yourself on the Internet. Change your computer passwords often, and always create passwords that are hard for someone else to guess.
• Don't divulge your social security number to anyone unless it's absolutely necessary. Your social security number is a powerful tool someone can use to unlock all sorts of other personal information about you.
• Strive to protect your credit. At least once a year, order your credit report from one of the three major credit reporting agencies and check to make sure the report is accurate. Destroy preapproved credit card offers that come in the mail. Keep a copy of every credit card receipt and compare each one to your statement when it arrives each month. Never leave your credit card lying around or loan it to anyone, and never give your credit card number out over the phone unless you initiated the call.
• Buy a paper shredder and use it whenever disposing of documents that contain sensitive information, including your credit card receipts.
• Spread your financial accounts out over several different organizations rather than using just one company for all your transactions (banking, investing, etc.).
• Don't give personal information out when speaking on a cordless or cellular phone, since those phone signals can be intercepted by other people.
• At work, assume that your boss and even your coworkers can monitor your Internet, e-mail, and telephone use. Save personal communication for off-work hours.
• Protect your home address by using a personal mail drop for receiving mail.
• Protect your home phone number by getting an unlisted number and refraining from calling toll-free numbers from that line (when you call toll-free numbers, the number from which you're calling is usually captured into the phone records).
• Don't sign up for discount shopping cards that track your purchases.
• Order a copy of your medical records from the Medical Information Bureau and check to see if it's accurate. Don't authorize doctors, nurses, or other medical personnel to share medical information about you unless it's absolutely necessary.
• Don't routinely carry sensitive documents - such as your social security card, birth certificate, insurance cards, or voter registration - in your purse or wallet.
• Don't respond to spam, junk mail, or telephone surveys.
  

Adapted from Invasion of Privacy: How to Protect Yourself in the Digital Age by Michael S. Hyatt, copyright 2001 by the Prospectives Group. Published by Regnery Publishing, Inc., Washington, D.C., www.regnery.com.

Michael S. Hyatt is a best-selling author specializing in technology and its impact on today's consumers. A speaker and consumer advocate, he has appeared on more than 650 radio and television shows and has testified before Congress on the subject of technology and the consumer. Hyatt is executive vice president and publisher of Thomas Nelson Publishers.

How have you recently had your privacy invaded, and how has that frustrated you? What steps are you currently taking to protect your privacy? How much personal information are you willing to divulge in exchange for benefits such as medical insurance and grocery store shopping card discounts? Visit Crosswalk's forums to discuss this topic by clicking on the link below.