Internet Activities That Expose Your Personal Information
As you surf the web, check your email or look up the local news, you are leaving bits and pieces of your personal information everywhere you go. Often identity thieves will track sites that are frequented by consumers to collect every piece of information you leave behind until they have enough to commit identity fraud. In order to ensure you protect your personal information, you need to know ways in which you expose your personal information online.
Internet Service
In order to connect to the internet, you have to use an Internet Service Provider or ISP. When you connect to the internet, your computer will have its own unique identification number known as its IP address (Internet Protocol Address). This address allows your computer the ability to send and receive data through the internet. When you sign up for an ISP you can request that you have a dynamic IP address. That means your IP will change each time you log-on to the internet. This will make tracing your IP to an ISP provider a little more difficult. After all, your ISP has your home address and personal information on file. Once a computer hacker identifies your personal information, they can do what they wish with it.
Communication through email has grown in popularity over the past few years. With email conversations, there is an imprint of your personal information left with each email you send. Furthermore, when an email you send to an individual is forwarded to another individual, your email address and personal information are sent with it; whether you know this other party or not.
Internet Browsers
Every time you visit a website, you are leaving a small piece of yourself behind. These “pieces” are referred to as cookies. In order to prevent your information from being left behind, it is important to clear out your web browser, but also change the security settings on your web browser itself. Select a higher priority security setting, but realize that some servers for banking institutions will block web browsers with too high of a security setting.
Internet Search Engines
The majority of users on the internet will use search engines to go about their web browsing. An internet search engine can use your IP address to log your information, terms you frequently search for and other information. Before using any particular search engine, a consumer should read their privacy policy and see how much information they store each time you search a term with them.
Cookies
As mentioned before, every time you visit a website, a particular portion of your personal information is stored. Have you ever left a website only to log back on and it say “Welcome Back ___”? This is because your computer and the internet have shared information; therefore the site recognizes you upon your return. Though these can be relatively harmless, there are items that can be installed in a consumer’s hard-drive known as third party cookies. These types of cookies are shared with advertising companies and sometimes hackers to share your personal information and log your website activity.
Instant Messages
Though the use of instant messages is not as popular as it used to be, they are still used today. Computers and internet servers will often store instant message conversations and archive them just as though it were typical browsing history.
Social Networks
Social networking sites have grown in popularity over the past few years. Just about everyone, including your grandparents, have a social networking profile. These sites require personal information to set up and depending on your privacy settings, people other than your linked friends and family can access your profile. That means they can get a hold of information such as your name, address, email address, phone number, etc.