Safeguarding Your Online Dating Privacy

Virtual dating has become a very popular way of meeting a potential mate or adding some romance to your life. Like many other Internet activities that allow interaction with other human beings, there is a dark side and you need to practice some safety and privacy precautions when dating online.

You can't really be sure who you are interacting with online or what the person's intentions really are until you get to know that person. This takes time and doesn't happen over night. Never reveal your personal information too early. This includes your e-mail address, home address, home phone number, cell phone number or any other information that may identify you.

Privacy in Online Profiles
Many well meaning people feel that they need to fill in every blank in their online profile. Being open and honest is a good thing but it does not mean that you need to pack your profile with every single detail of your life. This is not the place for your birth date or Social Security Number. I have seen dating sites that claim that they need the member's Social Security Numbers and these are not secured in private areas. Ask questions before giving any Web site your Social Security Number and only do so if they use a secure server.

Be sure to read the privacy policy for any online dating sites you consider joining and know what they do with the information they collect.

Stalkers mine the information available in your online profile and use that to trace other information about you available online long before they contact you.

Privacy in E-mail Communications
The majority of people that I talk to are under the false impression that if they sign up with one of the free Web based e-mail providers, their privacy is guaranteed and personal information is safe and secure. That is far from true. Anyone can view full headers, find out who your ISP is, and once this information is known, they can go a step further and have your name, home address, and phone number within minutes. That's all the information they need to stalk you or steal your identity. Your IP address is the key to identifying you on the Internet.

Even being in chat rooms and having seemingly private conversations with others can reveal your IP address. It takes less than a minute for someone to obtain your IP address and they don't need special software to do it.

NetConceal Anonymizer http://www.netconceal.com/ has software that protects your privacy by hiding your IP address and making your identity anonymous whenever you surf the web and do other Internet activity.

FindNot Internet Security Suite http://www.findnot.com provides anonymous proxy services that protect your privacy and protect you and your computer from other intrusions.

Use BCC in E-mail to Protect Privacy
When you send email messages to multiple addressees, each of the recipients will know who else received a copy unless you use Blind Carbon Copy field.

To protect the privacy of your online friends, simply enter your own e-mail address in the TO field and all of your friends' addresses in the BCC field with each of them separated by a comma. When you click the send button, your email will go to each individual addressee and will be addressed only to him or her.

Your privacy will be protected too because the identities of who you associate with online won't be revealed.

Use a Virtual Phone Number for Telephone Privacy
For a moderate fee, anyone with a checking account or a credit card can purchase a search of your home or cell phone number and receive your name and address.

If your phone number is listed and you have had it for a while, a free Google.com search may reveal your home address when your phone number is typed into the search engine.

If you are a member of any organizations who list your phone number in directories or in newsletters or if you have submitted your phone number anywhere online, it may also be listed in Google and other search engines.

Many sites on the Internet offer free or low cost virtual numbers that you can use to give to your friends on the Internet or use in online forms. Having one of these numbers has many benefits that include protecting the privacy of you home phone number and the ability to change phone numbers almost instantly if the need arises.

Skype http://www.skype.com and Vonage http://www.vonage.com are VoIP service providers offering low cost virtual phone numbers that you can give to your online friends or use in online forms. The nice thing is that you can get a phone number in any area you want to. You may live in Kansas and have a Texas phone number.

A Virtual Street Address Offers Privacy
A virtual street address would allow you to accept letters, cards, or even packages at a location other than your home or office so that you can keep your home address private.

Usa2Me http://www.usa2me.com is a mail forwarder and a whole lot more. For a monthly fee, they will provide you with a Texas, US address, scan your mail and e-mail it to you and even discard all of your junk mail.

Access USA http://www.myus.com offers package and mail forwarding and has been in business since 1997. Access USA receives packages on behalf of their customers and then we consolidate the merchandise, repacks, and ships the merchandise to our customers overseas. They also prepare all of the necessary customs paperwork for each shipment.

Using a few privacy precautions while searching for or communicating with a potential date, you may prevent yourself from becoming the victim of a stalker.