Protecting Your Privacy and Identity Online

These days more and more people are going online. Whether it is to purchase something from a medley of retailers, play a popular new game or round of online poker, or simply surf the web; there are a multitude of ways for a predator to gain access to your personal information.

Although giving out any information online is questionable, there are a few items you should not reveal in any circumstance. These include, but are not limited to, your social security number (SSN), any passwords, and not including verified transactions through Paypal - your credit card number, and yes, that includes online retailers.

The reason for not giving out this information is that a thief can take such information and open credit lines in your name. All they need is a photo I.D. which is easily obtained through such sites as Myspace.com, your SSN, and your name. They don't need your credit card because they'll open a brand new line in your name, thus ruining your credit report for a very long time.

Passwords should not be given to any source, including to a supposedly trusted website. To ensure that you are visiting the correct site, manually type in the URL (web address) of the site in question or use a trusted bookmark. This is to ensure you are not visiting a site that is fraudulently made to look like a trusted site. For example you may be fooled into entering your username and password at http://us.paypal.com which is not at all the trusted site Paypal. The real Paypal address is http://paypal.com.

It's the same deal with credit card numbers. How can you be sure that you're entering your number on a trusted site? How can you be sure that when you enter the number on that site that it gets stored in a secure location? The bottom line is, unless you coded the site yourself, you don't know. I've made a good number of database driven sites and I can tell you, once you click the submit button your information could be going anywhere. Be weary of entering personal information in any site.

Since I've covered online browser activity, let's go to computer security. First of all, if you're using Internet Explorer, you're better off switching. And I mean switching to anything else, be it Mozilla Firefox, Safari, Opera, AOL Explorer - you name it. Microsoft may not mean to - I don't know - but Internet Explorer has security issues that are exploited by pop-up programs, bogus installers and trojans. While it is not necessary for me to explain what each does, it suffices to say that your computer is like your body. You feed it crap and it's feel the same as crap. And some crap cannot be fixed. I'm sure you have something of value on your hard disk. Switch. Also, trojans and bogus installers can often send whole keystrokes back over the Internet. I'm sure you don't want bank account username and passwords to be handed over on a silver platter to some fat Internet junkie who wrote a small computer program. Please, secure your computer.

And then there are the times when you absolutely do need to give personal information out. Perhaps you need to verify your age to qualify for some plan. Associated Content won't pay you unless you can prove you are of eligible age and live in the United States of America. Google won't send you a check unless you verify both a credit line and social security or tax number. Myspace will delete accounts of underage users. In such cases, it is wise to give as little information as possible. In the case of a giant company like Google, you can be reasonably assured that your SSN will not be tossed out like confetti to third parties. In the case of Myspace you can hide your legal name and profile results while still giving a valid age. You can even block your profile from those who are not your "friends." For Associated Content, you can provide an alternate locale (or decline to show it on your profile) and write under a pseudonym, although in my personal opinion that decreases your professional credibility.

In any case, it is prudent to thoroughly check the privacy options available to you. The popular social networking site for schools, facebook.com, offers highly structured privacy controls that let you show or hide any number of personal items from the general public, your school network, and even select "friends."

The Internet is only as dangerous as you let it be. Surf wisely, and avoid becoming a scammer's catch of the day. Be aware of fraudulent sites. Use a secure browser to visit sites. Regularly run Spyware and Malware removal programs (a good one is Spybot Search & Destroy) and remember to keep firewalls and virus scanners active. Do not spread your real name and photo around the Net. Never publish your credit card number or SSN to untrustworthy sites.

They say paranoid people are crazy. But you'd be crazy to be cavalier about your security on the Internet.