2-privacy.com

“TrustedID, a company that sells services to consumers to give them more control over who sees their credit reports, has compiled a database of compromised numbers that could already be traded or sold on the Internet,” wrote Damon Darlin in a story that appeared on the front page of yesterday’s New York Times Business section.

Just go to StolenIDSearch.com and find out — free — if your number is one of the over 2,367,155 compromised Social Security and credit card numbers listed. (more…)

I was watching a recent episode of the CBS Television show Numb3rs.

In this one (like many) the crack F.B.I. team traces (real-time) the location of a bad-guy’s Internet access and manages to locate his to a specific home, building, or neighborhood.

This makes for great and exciting TV and while I’m quite confident there are a lot of things law-enforcement (especially the federal agencies) can do, quite speedily, overall I’m not entirely convinced enough to get out my tinfoil hat just yet.

When one connects to the “Net”, wirelessly or hard-line, it is through an IP (Internet Protocol) address. That IP address made up of numbers separated with dots tells the data packets where to go and how to get back to you. (more…)

Here is the top 10 ways to protect privacy online

1. Look for privacy policies on Web Sites:

Web sites can collect a lot of information about your visit — what computer you use, what type of hardware and software you have, what Web sites you have visited. Web sites that ask you to provide even a small amount of personal information can tie the data you provide to your browsing habits.

When you go to a Web site that has no privacy policy, write and tell the company that you are a user of their site, your privacy is important to you and you would like to see them post a policy. CDT has developed the Privacy Watchdog site to help you. (more…)