Internet Security ABC - Five Ways that Your Personal Information Finds Its Way to the Internet

Five Ways that Your Personal Information Finds Its Way to the Internet

You think that you are so careful when it comes to revealing your personal information on the Internet. However, you willingly provide information in a number of instances that you probably dont even realize. No matter what medium you work in, knowledge is power and if online marketers get a hold of your personal information, you will receive unsolicited mail, emails, phone calls and more. The dark side is that a hacker or identity thief could get a hold of your information as well for nefarious purposes.

If you are curious as to how your efforts to maintain your privacy are being combated, read on for five ways that your personal information finds its way to the Internet:

1. Your Internet service provider (ISP) is a vulnerable area in which personal information about you might leak to third

parties. There are a number of Internet service providers around the world from the bigwigs like MSN and AOL to the smaller, regional mom and pop operations. Each ISP has its own privacy policy and it is up to you to obtain those and decide if their security is adequate for your needs. You see, each computer has a special address called an Internet protocol (IP) address that is identifiable over the Internet. Some websites capture and record those IP addresses to determine where you are geographically. Someone online cannot directly access any personal information in this way. They could, through your IP address, figure out who your ISP is and follow the trail back in order to hack into their databanks and steal information in that way.

2. Opt-in lists and discussion groups are another vulnerable area where your personal information could find its way onto the Internet. Anything you make comments on or email about could be captured and saved. Email distribution lists from these discussion groups are often not shielded so other people could see your email address along with many others.

3. Browsing the Internet can often open your personal information up to the public without your knowledge. Each time you use an Internet browser, your IP address is often relayed to web sites as well as your search history. In turn, online advertisers can then target you with pop-up ads and other advertisements. In addition, each time you visit a website, a cookie is stored onto your computer. It is like a little file, which may store login information as well as other activities you may have executed the last time you visited the site. Web advertisers often can get access to these cookies and gobble them up and digest all that information to tailor specific ads and offers just for you.

4. Blogging opens up many ways that your personal information could be obtained through the Internet. A blog is basically an online journal of events. And many people have personal blogs in which they reveal daily facts about their lives. Unless the blog is restricted, the general public could find it. It wouldnt take an enterprising identity thief very long to piece together your personal history and figure out who you are, even if you use only first names.

5. Bill paying online can be a great way for you to stay on top of your finances. However, you want to ensure that any information you relay is done on a secure web site. Check for the https:// in the address bar line or the little closed lock icon on the bottom right of the screen. Many people have been fooled with phishing schemes where they receive an email, supposedly from their bank to verify some information. When you click on a link in those phishing emails, boom! Someones got your personal information. Your bank or financial institution will never send you an email asking you to re-verify your information. If there were some security issue, they would call you or mail something explaining the security issue.

There are a number of ways in which your personal information can find its way onto the Internet. Even the most diligent of measures can be thwarted by the simplest of things like a blog or posting an instant message or paying a bill online.

Telling Characteristics of a Computer in the Throes of Spyware
Is your computer in the throes of spyware? Does your machine suffer from an infestation of these insidious pieces of software that will make your life miserable? Is there a surefire way to tell? Spyware is a kind of software that is used for...

Three Important Steps to Safeguard Your Internet Privacy
Internet privacy is the ability to control what information you reveal about yourself over the Internet and who can access this personal information. The subset of Internet privacy is called computer privacy, which narrows down the field of privacy...

Spyware and the Steps to Take to Eradicate It from your Computer
Spyware is one of the roots of all-evil in the computer world. There are claims that a brand new computer without any type of anti-virus or Spyware protection hooked up to the Internet could become infected within minutes! That is a scary thought...

Is this Site Secure? Ways to Find Out
Everything you do comes with some element of risk, no matter how slight. The same thing applies to the Internet. The great thing about the Internet is that it is a convenient, easily accessible source of information and it also makes shopping and...

F2F How Friend-to-Friend Networks Help Maintain Anonymity
Anonymity is hard to maintain while surfing online. Most users personal information can be displayed from their IP addresses, and any person can obtain information with access to these addresses. Friend-to-Friend (F2F) networks can be used to help...

Internet Security
◦ Are You an Enabler? What Enabling Cookies
◦ Can the Spam-How to Filter Out All the Unnecessary Junk
◦ Channel the Cookie Monster in You - Computer Cookies Can Be Bad For Your Computer's Health
◦ Chat Room Challenge - Five Tips to Ensure Your Anonymity
◦ Computer Band-aid - How to Know if You Need to Download that Security Patch
◦ Computer Deep Freeze - Ten Tips to Keep your PC Up and Running
◦ Computer Junkyard - Does Spam Filtering Really Help?
◦ Dial-Up vs. Broadband - Which is the Safer Alternative?
◦ Doesn't Ad up - Three Things that Adware does to your Computer
◦ Don't Click No! How to Safely Close those Pop-up Windows
◦ Don't Get Hacked Off-How to Stop Computer Interlopers in their Tracks
◦ Exercise Parental Control - Five Tips to Keep Kids Safe on the Internet
◦ Exterminate those Bugs on your PC
◦ Getting Down With Downloads - How to Protect Your Computer
◦ Hijacked at Home - Five Steps to Protect Your Home PC
◦ Identity Theft via Internet Security Flaws
◦ Inoculate Yourself against Computer Viruses
◦ Internet Anonymizers - Why and When You Should Use Them
◦ Key Logging Capers Part Two - Three Reasons why it is a Problem
◦ Key Logging Capers - Three Reasons Why You Need It
◦ Let's Go Phishing! - Five Ways to Avoid Being Hooked by This Scam
◦ Maintaining Your Privacy on the Internet - Five Things you can do
◦ Malicious Instant Messages-Three Ways Instant Messaging Compromises Internet Security
◦ Malware is bad for your Computer
◦ Picking Blackberries - Why Mobile Technology Needs More Security
◦ Pound Those Pop-Ups
◦ Six Tips for Staying Healthy in a Computer Virus World
◦ Something Doesn't Register - Cleaning your Computer's Registry for Safety
◦ Spies Everywhere - What is Spyware and Why is it so Bad?
◦ Squash those Worms - Four Ways to Keep your PC Critter-Free
◦ That Wasn't Scripted! Why Scripted Viruses are Bad News
◦ The Basics of Internet Website Encryption
◦ The Cookie Monster - How Do Cookies Influence Internet Security?
◦ The Digital Certificate - What's It Mean and Why is It Important?
◦ Three Benefits to Using an Internet Remailer
◦ Three Reasons to Wipe Your Computer's Internet History Files Clean
◦ Three Ways that an Internet Firewall Can Be Compromised
◦ Three Ways to Identify a Virus Hoax
◦ Three Ways to make sure your Online Credit Card Transaction is Safe
◦ Toolbar Traps - What You Should Know BEFORE Downloading that "Helpful" Toolbar
◦ Top Five Reasons to Install a Firewall
◦ Top Five Spyware Threats to Internet Security
◦ Top Five Vulnerable Areas in Internet Security
◦ Top Five Worst Viruses and How to Protect Your Computer against Them
◦ Top Four Ways to Ensure a Secure Password
◦ Top Ten Tools to Boost your Internet Security
◦ What IP Addresses Mean in the Scheme of Internet Security
◦ When Formatting the Hard Drive is Your Only Recourse

Internet Privacy
◦ Remote Access Trojans Hijacking your Computer
◦ Precautions You Should Take When Installing WiFi in your Home
◦ Sold! How to Maintain your Privacy and Still Indulge in Online Auctions
◦ Social Networking Be Careful of What You Post!
◦ Sneaky Ways to Get Around those Internet Privacy Issues

Identity Theft
◦ Electronic Mail Identity Theft
◦ Facts on Identity Theft
◦ Fighting Identity Theft

ID Theft

Download Free eBook "The Dangers of Identity Theft and How to Protect Yourself!"