Written By: Darity Wesley

“The public good is in nothing more essentially interested than in the protection of every individual’s private rights” – William Blackstone

We make many choices every day about protecting our privacy and keeping our identities safe. That statement may sound a bit alarmist, but after you become aware of how many opportunities we are offered to volunteer our personally identifiable information, you will realize that you have the right to control what information you give and to whom.

A longtime newsletter reader told us a story last month of how he stood up for his rights. He had just purchased a home and the homeowner’s association asked him for his bank account numbers, social security number and other personal information. He asked them why they needed it and the response was that it was to run a background check and it was part of the procedure for being accepted into the association. He reluctantly said yes and then asked them what they were going to do with the information once that process was complete. The answer was that it would be in his file. That wasn’t good enough for our reader- there was no guarantee of security for his very important personally identifiable information. He requested his file back when they were finished accepting his application. They gave it to him. (Just as a refresher, here are the top 10 myths about privacy.)

Another reader wanted to return an item to a department store. In order to do so, the store requested her driver’s license. When asking the clerk why it was needed, she said she didn’t know but no refund would be given without it. Our reader kept the item rather than give up her driver’s license information.

You also need to be aware of giving away your bank account numbers as they may be used for nefarious purposes. Recently an IT tech in a NY bank pleaded guilty to data theft and fraud for stealing more than $1,000,000 from charities by creating dummy accounts using personal information stolen from co-workers.

As far as your social security number goes, just because a form asks you for it, do not put it there unless someone tells you why they need it since your social security number is not necessary for identification purposes.

Another important way to maintain your privacy is to not respond to even the most reasonable sounding requests for confirmation of your account. Opening these emails will often either give you a virus or gather information about you. I recently received several requests from ‘UPS’ saying that our shipment was undeliverable. The ‘from’ email address looked okay but a couple of things looked suspicious – first I couldn’t recall sending anything on those dates and there was an attachment on the email. Attachments can be a big tip-off that an email can be bogus. My next step was to check out Snopes – the scam and urban legend reference page. Sure enough, that scam was in there so I deleted those emails right away and reminded everyone in the office to be careful.

It can be tricky to navigate the information jungle out there so please be sure to stay aware and alert about who really needs your information. Make it a conscious decision to give it to them, rather than just going along with what you are asked to provide.