13 Easy Ways to Safeguard Your Privacy in 2007
Many of us worry about privacy or personal data - if you do, you should spend a bit efforts to protect them. A blog called ICWT: In Corruption We Trust introduces 13 ways to protect your privacy. They are painless and easy to perform and could effectively protect your privacy. Take several and implement them:
- Don’t Use Your Middle Initial.
- Get a Non-Published Telephone Number.
- Get a P.O. Box and Use It.
- Print Only Your Name and Address on Checks.
- Disable the RFID Chip in Your Passport.
- Buy Your Stamps and Mail Your Packages at the Counter.
- Use Prepaid Calling Cards.
- Avoid Filing Change of Address Orders with USPS.
- Safeguard Personal Information Online.
- Call the OneCall OptOut Number.
- Use Private Phone to Protect Privacy in Online Auctions.
- OptOut of the Databases of Many Online Data Vendors.
Do you have other ways to safeguard your privacy?
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Comments
Steve says on January 2nd, 2007 at 8:50 am
It should be noted that #5 (”Disable the RFID Chip in Your Passport.”) is a federal crime.
Though still not an awful idea.
Maybe it’s too obvious, but I felt the list should include buying and using a good shredder and using cash whenever possible.
Some of the list is paranoid. The post office will get your picture in security cameras no matter where you do your transactions. If you’re going to go so far as to abolish your middle initial, you might as well use an alias (which is just as easy for everything but passports.)
If you’re this paranoid, you shouldn’t write checks at all. After all they contain your name, address, bank, checking account number and your signature.
And I’m not so sure about the Private Phone recommendation. The terms of service send up red alerts for anyone who’s a privacy nut.
maria says on March 12th, 2007 at 8:53 pm
I think some of these could be updated a little. For instance, “Print only your name and address on checks” could become, “Just use your debit card instead of a check.” And some prepaid calling cards can be a bit sketchy. Make sure you’re using one that’s legitimate and has been around a long time — onesuite.com is one, in case you don’t feel like searching. And here’s an addition to the list: don’t buy anything from a site you linked to through an email. It’s an old but common scam called “phishing” (I believe) where people set up replica sites and send emails that pretend to be ads for legitimate businesses, with links to the replica sites in the messages; when you buy something online, go to the site by manually entering the address into your web browser, never by clicking on an email link.