Identity Theft: How is the Information Collected?

While filing out paper forms is straight forward you need to find out from websites how the information is being collected. Websites sometimes use cookies that they install on the visitor’s computer to track information about what pages they click on, how long they spend there and your IP address.

This information can be tracked without your consent. Usually it is only to facilitate the company’s marketing research or to assist you by using your information from previous visits. You should be able to find out what information is automatically stored by reading the privacy policy.

What Will the Information be Used for?

If the business asks for your personal or financial information you have a right to know what it will be used for.

Is it only to complete the transaction? Will they view a purchase as permission to market to you again or to sell your information to other businesses? This information should be available in the privacy policy as well as information on how to ‘opt-out’ of these uses.

Who Will Have Access to Your Information?

Is the information sold or rented? Do they share your name, email address or purchasing habits with other businesses? These areas should be clearly outlined in the privacy policy. If they do sell or rent the names on their list you may wish to limit the information you provide.

Watch for terms like “affiliates”, “sponsors” or “partners” since you will have no idea who will be receiving the information.What can you do to prevent identity theft? Get free adware download and protect your online privacy.

How Secure is Your Information?

What steps are taken to protect your personal information? Any transaction that requires you to submit personal or financial information should have SSL (Secure Socket Layers). SSL will encrypt the information so that it can’t be read by others during transmission. What can you do to prevent identity theft? Get your free $97 PC Security book at http://www.pc-tool.info/

You can verify the security by looking for the https at the beginning of the URL and an icon with a lock (closed) in the bottom corner of your browser window. While these methods are not completely infallible and can possibly be mimicked on fraudulent sites they are a good indication that security precautions are being taken.

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