How can I protect my privacy online?

A few basic tips...

1. Don't give out personal information without knowing how it will be used. Say a website is asking for your name, or email address, or phone number/mailing address. They wouldn't request that information unless they are going to use that information for something, so be sure you know what. Are they going to sell your contact information to third parties? Are they going to bombard you with advertising mail and "Spam"? Check the website for a "Privacy Policy" or "Terms of Service", and read it, before giving out your personal information. If you don't trust the website/company with your personal info, don't give it out.

2. Don't respond to "Spam" emails. Most Spam emails contains a link can visit to "take my name off your mailing list". Sounds good? Not quite. Trying to "get off the list" merely confirms to the spammer that your email address is "live" and that you actually read the email. This makes your email address more valuable to the spammer, so you'll just receive yet more Spam!

3. Shop securely. Make sure you use a "secure connection" when submitting confidential data (such as credit card or billing information) on a web site. Look for the "lock" icon (make sure it's closed) in your web browser's status bar to ensure your information is being sent encrypted, over a secure channel. If you use a credit or debit card to shop online, carefully review your bank/credit card statement each month to make sure it only includes charges that you've authorized.

4. Don't post your personal information on your website. One of the most serious violations of privacy is the crime of "identity theft" -- someone stealing another person's personal identifying information - say, your name, address, phone, date of birth - and using that information to open charge accounts, sign up for utilities, or take out loans. The victim is usually unaware of this until collection agencies contact them to pay for bills they did not incur, or s/he is denied credit because the identity thief has run up debts in the victim's name. The unfortunate fact is that putting your information "out there" makes you vulnerable.

5. Encrypt confidential emails. The most secure way to keep your email private is to encrypt and/or digitally sign your emails. Encrypting emails allows you to translate an email you send into "code" which only the intended recipient can decode with a special key, so even if someone intercepts the email, or accesses your computer, they will not be able to read the email. "Digitally signing" your emails allows the recipient to verify that an email really came from you. A popular free program which lets you encrypt and sign emails is called GnuPG (GNU Privacy Guard), which you can download from their web site here. Another one is PGP (Pretty Good Privacy), their "PGP Personal" product is free for individual single-user use. PGP can be downloaded from the PGP web site.

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