It is amazing how much personal information we are willing to part with. Not only are we willingly parting with this valuable information, we often actively give it away, almost begging for someone to take it!
I have spent the past year watching people from a different perspective. I made a conscious effort to note whenever they gave up some personal information and I was shocked with how easily people did this! I was able to find out incredibly intimate details about the lives of complete strangers!
As a result of this activity, I have come up with a list of ways people bleed personal information and how you can stop yourself from giving up more than you need.
Why Do I Care?
You may be saying to yourself, “Why do I care who knows my personal information? I have nothing to hide!” This may be true but your personal information is the key to who you are. If someone knows your personal information, this is the first step they take to stealing your identity.
For example, let’s say you happened to mention to someone in passing that your sister, Jenny, was in the hospital last week with a broken wrist. On the surface, this sounds pretty innocent. But, if someone who is skilled at the art of deception has this information, they could potentially contact you at a later date, posing to be your sister’s friend. They could comment on how unfortunate it was that she recently broke her wrist, which would further enhance the illusion that she is Jenny’s friend. Then, “Jenny’s friend” could as you for a favour or more information about her or yourself that you would probably be more willing to give up because, after all, she is “Jenny’s friend” and Jenny wouldn’t be friends with just anyone!
This process is often referred to as social engineering and is probably more common than you realize. Just the other day, I had someone call me at work. The told me the name of their company and that I still had not picked up my toner cartridges that we had asked them to set aside. When would I like to have them delivered? Fortunately, I deal with only one toner cartridge company and this was not them. But, I could see how a large corporation could easily fall in to this trap and assume that someone had ordered the toner and the order fell through the cracks.
The other issue is that people and companies may not take good care of your personal information. I received a letter from the government one day, asking that I call them. I called the number (after confirming that it actually was a government number) and asked to speak to the person who wrote the letter. Before they would talk to me, they needed to confirm who I was (which initially impressed me). In order to do this, the person on the other end began reading off my person information and getting me to answer “Yes” or “No” to the questions! I could have been anyone and answered “Yes” to all the questions! And this was a government employee!
So, how do we bleed personal information?
How We Bleed Information
1. Answer questions too easily
I have lost count how many times I have been at the store and had someone me for my phone number, e-mail address, or zip code. This information gets put directly into the store’s marketing machine so that they can target their advertising at you. I don’t know about you but I am generally annoyed by advertisements. And yet, we provide them with information to get us more!
Also, when you are giving up this information, you never know who is listening and recording this information. The store may have a policy about not giving out personal information but what about the customer standing in line behind you?
2. Being too friendly
I was at a park a little while ago with my kids and I struck up a conversation with one of the other fathers at the park. Within a few minutes, I knew his kids names, his wife’s name, where they lived, his job, the company he worked for, where they had their cabin, and how long they were on vacation. All because I was friendly.
3. Not having an unlisted number
By not having an unlisted number, people can very easily determine your name and address through simple internet searches. This also puts you on other phone lists that telemarketers and other sales people use for soliciting purposes.
4. You are what you wear
One morning, a woman got on the bus and, without her saying a word, I knew her name, where she worked, and what she did for a living. She was wearing her nurse’s uniform and name tag for the hospital where she worked. And, by noting the time she got on the bus, I was able to determine approximately when her shift was.
Many places have uniforms and name tags that are required for work. They are a wealth of information for people.
5. Personal websites
As an experiment, I decided to do a quick search on the internet for a random family. The family I discovered had so much information on their personal website and other places on the internet, I actually contacted them and told them that could find themselves at risk because of all the information that was out there!
6. Greed
“If you give us your Name/Address/Phone Number/E-Mail we will sent you for free/enter you in a contest.” I understand that you really want that wide-screen TV or those hand cream samples but are they really worth your personal information?
7. Hello, My Name is Anonymous
Anything that has your name on it is a privacy nightmare. Home signs, name tags, t-shirts, jackets, hats, vehicles, vanity license plates, etc. all provide more information than they should.
8. Laziness
Some websites allow you to create a personal profile that let’s you check-out quicker. In order to complete this profile, you often need to enter personal information that they then store “for your convenience”.
Help Me Stop The Bleeding
So, how to we stem the flow of personal information? Here are a few techniques that I have found to be very effective.
1. Ask questions
“Is this information required for me to complete the purchase?”
“What will this information be used for?”
“Are you willing to provide me with the same personal information in exchange?”
“Can you provide me with your company’s privacy policy in writing as required by law?”
When challenged, many store clerks will let you go on your way with no further questions asked.
2. Be aware of what you are saying silently
Don’t wear anything in public that is personally identifying unless is is absolutely required. Ask your employer if they would be willing to change a name tag policy. Don’t wear name tags and uniforms to and from work.
3. What could this be used for?
Regardless of how friendly as stranger is, they are still a stranger. Ask youself, “How could the information that this stranger is asking for be used against me?” Once you get in this mindset, you may be startled at how much information you aren’t willing to part with.
4. Never put personal information on the Internet
Once personal information is put in the Internet, it is no longer in your contol. Even if you remove it at a later date, it is often still available on an web archive (see Archive.org). This information could be used for any purpose by anyone.
Conclusion
The world is a scary place and we can never be too careful about what people may do with our personal information. It is up to each of us to secure and manage our personal information so that we do not find ourself in a compromising position.
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March 28th, 2007 at 5:18 pm
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