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Online Privacy Protection Tips

Part 2 of 3

5. Beware of Big Brother!

We're not talking about your family member, we're speaking of the kind of computer monitoring that occurs in companies all across the country. In most cases, you will have very limited privacy protection when it comes to an employer monitoring your activities at work. It's not meant to spy on your personal life, it's done to protect their sensitive information and ensure that you aren't wasting time that they're paying for, divulging company information, or doing something illegal.

When discussing sensitive matters or browsing the Internet for company related work, just be sure about who you're communicating with. As well, you'll never want to tend to personal concerns such as online banking or entertainment because you never know what details are being passed or to whom.

6. You can do without the prize!

If you search the Web for any length of time you'll undoubtedly come across offers whereby you will win a prize if you just provide them your personal details. Don't fall for these offers! In almost all cases, they are simply gathering this information to aid in their marketing. Your personal information, once harvested, could then be sold or shared with even more marketers resulting in a flood of unwanted attention, spam and junk mail. Sweepstakes and contests are popular fronts for spammers and marketing companies so be sure that you trust the company behind the prize.

7. Don't ask to be removed from a spam list!

Huh? Can we be serious? Absolutely! In most cases, a spam remove request will be nothing more than an indication that they've reached a live body. To test this theory, I created an anonymous email address on Hotmail before submitting my name to a web site promising to remove my email address from their database. Keep in mind that this email address had never been used before so it wasn't even in their database to begin with. I submitted the email address, got the confirmation that I would "never be bothered again" and I waited. After three days I felt their removal was legitimate but on the fourth day, I started to see spam trickle in. By the end of the first 30 days, more than 200 spam messages were received, including some from the very same company!

While spam emails will say you can remove your name by visiting their web site or entering "REMOVE" in the subject line, don't bother. Most do so to feign legitimacy but you will undoubtedly get a "mail cannot be delivered" error or even more spam as a result. Just delete the email and chalk it up to the expected annoyances of being a Web surfer.

While Privacy Guardian won't block spam, you can certainly use a tool like Spam Monitor to detect, isolate, and destroy unwanted emails.

8. Shop smart!

Never, ever submit a credit card number or other highly sensitive information without first making sure that the connection is secure. In Netscape and Internet Explorer, look for a picture of a closed lock at the bottom of the browser and "https://" in the URL window. This will tell you that you are on a secure page. If you don't see these security items then you are not on a secure page and should refrain from entering any sensitive data. After all, you never know who might be peeking in.

Continue on to part 2 of 3

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