Personal Information
- The crime of identity
theft is on the rise.
- Even though victims are usually not saddled with paying their imposters'
bills, they are often left with a bad credit report and must spend months and
even years regaining their financial health.
- Victims of identity theft find almost no help from the authorities as they
attempt to untangle the web of deception that has allowed another person to
impersonate them
- Linda Tapia reported her
stolen
identification to the police but got more bad news. She was told that in
California, it's not a crime to steal someone's credit identity,
- Time Magazine has an excellent article on the loss of privacy
and some ideas about how you can protect yourself.
Invasion
of Privacy
- Employment Scams Including your social security
number on your resume can be expensive.
- Privacy
Thieves A Time Magazine article about what *can* happen to you
(and *did* happen to the reporter)
- Personal information databases West Publishing
and Lexis are only two of the larger and more visible commercial enterprises
that collect and sell personal information about you.
- Credit
reports Experian (was TRW) makes your credit report available online. On
their first day of service, they sent the wrong reports to the wrong people.
- and they aren't alone. See credit laws and agencies
- They also sell your personal information to telemarketers. But in CA, MA,
and NH you can "opt out" by phoning or writing these agencies.
credit laws and agencies
- Unlike a criminal case, in which people are innocent until proven guilty,
victims of credit fraud often need to prove they are not the individuals who
fraudulently obtained the credit cards and ran up the bills.
- With the advent of computerized
medical records and the
growth of managed care, some very intimate information is now at the fingertips
of almost any computer-savvy person, experts say.
- How they
get it Geocities provides free web space. How do they pay for it? Despite
wrtitten assurances to the contrary, Geocities sold the information on the
application to third parties.
- We may assume that the information grocery stores collect through their "preferred
customer" cards gets similar treatment.
- Your driving record may be on the Internet
American Automated Systems is another commercial service which collects and
sells your driving information if you live in a
state
with weak privacy laws.
- Your Signature for Sale? UPS collects your
signature electronically on their pen computers. Shippers can access this
signature, and UPS does not prohibit them from reselling it.
- Your personal
data may be keyed in by a prison inmate You generally have no way of finding
out what junk data exists about you, nor who is using it or handling it. Direct
marketers have long been attracted by the lower wages paid to prisoners.
- Where
do You live? This service draws a map to your house. Not really a
privacy concern, unless it's used by the prisoner in the above article who
doesn't have a map...
- Reverse phone
number lookup Find somebody with only their phone number; use the address to
find their house above. Can you say "Caller ID"?
- Reverse phone number
lookup The "Stalker's Home Page" has a reverse phone number
lookup a few pages down, but also explains some of the risks.
- Caller ID Beginning June 1996 (in California), when you make a phone call,
your telephone number will be sent to the person or office you are calling --
even if you have an unlisted number.
- What your browser reveals
A page that will show you what a web site can find out about you.