Privacy And Identity Theft - A Reason, A Season Or A Lifetime

By Author: Ifida Known
Total Articles: 7
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Although there are many reasons for maintaining privacy, it's difficult to establish the right mix of how private you are compared with how private you should be. It's difficult to know who you can talk to you and who will keep your information and situation private. Often we get this mixed up. Regardless, the world is too small to tell chunks of your life to complete strangers.

Several years ago I lived in a smaller community. I had put my house up for sale and all of the realtors in the area had come through one morning and looked at it during the course of their morning showings. A couple of months later I was visiting show homes in the area and stopped to talk to a man who was hosting at a particular home. We got into a conversation and because I would never see this man again I used him as a sounding board and told him things I usually would not - and him a complete stranger! When the conversation was finished and I was leaving he exclaimed, like someone who had been trying to find the last piece to the puzzle and had just fit it into place, I know who you are! He proceeded to tell me my name, the street ...
... I lived on and other very specific, personal details about me. I was horrified that now he had an even bigger picture. Apparently his day job was realtor and he had toured through the house I was selling.

In 1967 Stanley Milgram coined the phrase six degrees of separation to show that any two individuals could be connected through five associates, with one being a personal acquaintance. That was then, but our modern world is 'shrinking'. It is said that the average person is now connected by just three degrees of separation within a social group or shared interest instead of six. In fact, it is found that people are usually a part of three main networks: family, friendship, and work/church.

Email and cell phones are key factors in shrinking the world for older people but social networks, such as Facebook and LinkedIn, are the main factor for the younger generation. It has never been easier to make connections and build networks of contacts for friends and business associations throughout the world making it even easier for identity theft.

Unfortunately two things are true:

1. More than 40% of identity theft is perpetrated by someone who knows you
or knows of you.

2. Identity thieves are ordinary people who are either looking for a free ride
or who are good people, but find themselves in desperate situations.

Like any other kind of crook, an identity thief is an opportunist. Most of their time is simply spent waiting for individuals to lose their focus and get careless with their information. Most identity thieves position themselves wherever they will have the best access to an individual's personal information and then steal the identity for a reason - a quick hit for all they can get and then they're gone, a season - a steady draw through ATM withdrawal or by setting up accounts, or a lifetime - where they actually burrow in and take over the life of their victim in another location.

Privacy is an important commodity, especially to someone who has lost it.

Sometimes we give up our privacy, willingly for perceived benefits. We may trade anonymity for the chance to win a prize or a contest, fly free, get less expensive groceries or receive an opportunity for admiration. We speak too loudy in public places and talk freely to total strangers we think we will never see again only to find out how small the world really is This is not to say that I recommend you be so private that you're closed to friendship and intimacy, but some things are meant to be kept personal.

Pay attention specifically to your personal identifying information (PII) and keep it on a need to know basis, especially the numbers. No matter how close you are to someone, if they don't need to know, keep your PII private - You never know that relationship may end and you'll wish you still had your privacy.

People are in our lives for a reason, a season or a lifetime. It is only those we CHOOSE to put into our lives for a lifetime to whom we should expose more of our personal identifying information.

And now I'd like to invite you to go to http://www.powerofprivacy.com and get your FREE instant access to Your Ultimate Guide to Privacy from Ifida Known, America's Ambassador for Privacy, Safety, Security, Identity and Assett Protection . Other articles written by Ifida Known are available at http://www.IfidaKnown.com. Copyright 2005-2008 © Ifida Known Enterprises LLC