With a few tips and a little bit of time, you can try and prevent your private information from being stolen and/or made public. It is not always 100% guaranteed, but doing nothing or being careless with your information will dramatically increase the likelihood of your privacy being breached. I discussed the Top 10 List of privacy concerns in yesterday’s post. Today, I want to go into more detail about using some commonsense tips to combat the privacy risks facing seniors today.
Unsecure paper documents can be a plethora of information for identity thieves. Do not dispose of credit card offers or other similar mail in the trash and do not respond to offers received in the mail. If you want to donate to a charity, call the charity first to find out if the mailing is legitimate. To avoid telephone scams, do not answer calls from unknown numbers and do not return voicemails left by an automated message. Never give out your social security number over the telephone unless you initiated the call. If you receive a call purporting to be from your bank or financial institution wanting personal information, hang-up and call the number on your card or statement to verify the original call was legitimate. As with telephone calls, never give out personal information via text message. And do not click on links received in text messages. If you continually receive spam calls, change your telephone number.
Computer hackers are always on the lookout for people who will click on pop-ups advertising everything from shoes to anti-virus software. Do not click on those pop-ups or links received in your email. And if you think your computer has a virus, get offline and have your computer checked. Also remember that the federal government, your email service provider, banks, etc., will never ask you for your personal information, user name or password via email. If shopping online, do not use the same password for every site. Also create secure passwords, meaning words not found in the dictionary nor using any personally identifying information, like your address or birthday. Always make sure to look for the “https” in your browser when shopping online or logging onto sensitive sites. And be sure to change your passwords routinely (about once a year or more often if your password or the website has been compromised).
On your social media sites, avoid posting too much personal information. Never post your home address, birthdate, telephone number and never talk about being away from home. Save sharing the details about your trip until after you return home. Bookmark frequently visited sites so that you do not have to retype in the web address each time, thus avoiding the possibility of mistyping the address and being led to a phony site. Always use an encrypted network to log into sensitive sites, like your bank or credit cards.
Finally, if you are the victim of a data breach, there is not much you can do but close the account, change the password and monitor your credit. However, one key goal is to minimize the amount of information you give out. When a company wants your personal information, always ask yourself these questions: (1) why does the company/service provider need this information; and (2) how will the company/service provide protect my information? If there is NOT a good answer, do NOT give the information.
Check back tomorrow for Part 3, the final installment of Seniors and Privacy for a list of Do’s and Don’ts.
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