Protect Your Privacy Online

The Internet brings the world into our living rooms, but it also brings many problems that are new to the Internet age. One of the biggest problems is our potential loss of privacy. It seems like every web site that offers a service wants to collect personal information about us, and many of those web sites turn around and sell that information to other companies. Fortunately, it is possible to browse the Internet and use popular services and still maintain a decent level of privacy. Here are some helpful techniques to keep in mind:

Online Forms
When you’re filling out an online form, don’t give out any information you’re uncomfortable providing. In particular, avoid giving out your Social Security number and your birth date; they should remain private, and very few web sites have a valid reason to ask for them. Many experts recommend being creative with the truth if necessary; since most web sites claim to be gathering this information for demographic reasons only, making minor adjustments to your location and the month, day, and year of your birth shouldn’t affect their research at all.

Multiple E-mail Addresses
Consider keeping multiple e-mail addresses for different uses. In these days of reliable, free e-mail from places like Google and Yahoo!, it’s easy to have more than one e-mail address. One possible strategy is to have one e-mail address that you give out only to family and friends and that you never enter into an online form. Have a second e-mail address for day-to-day online business (use that with web sites you trust), and a third e-mail address for everything else, including those web sites and software packages that make you register before you can use them. Periodically, or when the spam becomes overwhelming, close this third e-mail address and start up a new one.

Unsolicited E-mail and “Phishing”
Never respond to unsolicited e-mail, especially unsolicited e-mail that wants you to go to a web site and enter your personal information! This is an Internet fraud technique called “phishing”: the con artist sends you an e-mail message that pretends to be from a reliable source, such as PayPal or a nationally-known bank. The message tells you that your account has been suspended because it was compromised and some of your personal information was lost. Then it asks you to click on a link to re-enter your personal information and re-activate your account. Do not fall for this scam! The link often looks legitimate, but it never is; instead it goes to the con artist’s look-alike web site. He then takes all the personal information you enter and either sells it or uses it for himself. If you are ever worried that something might be wrong with one of your accounts, call the institution yourself using a phone number from your account statement or the institution’s web site. Note: The Mozilla Firefox web browser includes built-in phishing protection.

Watch What You Write
Never write anything in an e-mail message that you wouldn’t want to see posted to a forum somewhere. Many people see nothing wrong with publicly posting e-mail messages they have received from you, even when the communication was supposed to be private. Since e-mail is digital, your message can be copied, edited, forwarded, translated, and posted effortlessly, without your permission and without your knowledge. When it comes to e-mail, watch what you write!

Too Much Candor

If you have a blog (weblog), be careful what you post about your life. It has become common practice for employers to search Google for job applicants’ names. If your future bosses came across your weblog and read your private thoughts and revelations, would they still want to hire you? What about a future spouse, friends, children, or grandchildren? Would you be comfortable having them read everything you’ve written? Don’t think that you can take down problematic posts if you need to; web pages have a way of being archived and popping up when you least expect them. ZDNet has an interesting article on this subject, “Want a job? Clean up your Web act”.

Don’t Use Your Children’s Names Online
Don’t mention private information such as your children’s names or the names of your pets when you send e-mail, post to forums, or write on your weblog. Children everywhere are taught to be wary of strangers, but strangers don’t seem so strange when they already know names and personal information. Pets are taught to respond to their names, but you don’t want them responding to a stranger who has done a little research online. As a further precaution, don’t mention exactly where you live; you can still give the flavor of your location with more general information.

Keep Your Computer Off-Limits
Be careful about letting non-family members use your computer. They may not be as diligent as you are about keeping your personal information private. They also might inadvertantly install spyware or even a virus without you being aware of it.

Strong Passwords

Your private information is only as private as your passwords, so be careful. The best passwords are random combinations of upper and lowercase letters and numbers, but this type of password tends to be difficult to remember. A good technique to create passwords is to take two words in upper and lowercase and put a two or three-digit number between them, such as Peanut21sandBox or dumPty197Phone. Do not use your birthday, your anniversary, or the names of your pets, children, or other relatives — those passwords would be too easy to guess and won’t stand up to the brute force method (using a program to cycle through all possible password combinations). Microsoft has published a good article on this subject, “Strong passwords: How to create and use them”, which includes their six-step process to create a strong password and their free Password Checker which lets you test the strength of the passwords you create. The United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team has also published Cyber Security Tip ST04-002, “Choosing and Protecting Passwords”.

The Bottom Line
Even in this technological age, common sense is still the best defense when it comes to maintaining our privacy online. Think of your online communications the same as you would a private letter and act accordingly.

Filed Under Windows How-To's