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Phishing is a serious threat to your privacy and financial and information security. You know you should be careful about phishing; you know better than to send your bank account number to that nice man from Nigeria. What you may not know is that most identity thieves steal your privacy (as well as your cash, credit, and name) by taking hard copy mail, or by finding opportunities to copy your information in the normal course of doing business with them.
One of the seldom considered downsides of outsourcing all of our technical support calls is that United States privacy laws simply lack jurisdiction in India, and through most of the locations where where the US might start to develop call centers in the future. When your call is monitored for quality assurance, what stops the poorly paid supervisor from jotting down your account information and selling it, or using it himself or herself? Sure, companies will set up confidentiality contracts, but when someone has decided to do something illegal or unethical with your private information, a piece of paper is unlikely to stop them.
Another system to avoid if you wish to protect your privacy would be ATMs that don’t belong to a bank. Drugstore ATMs and other convenience locations are operated for the profit from fees, and can not necessarily be trusted not to lift your information off of the card you swipe. This kind of scenario can be a privacy nightmare. People even set up fake, dummy ATMs that do nothing except gather information on the cards that are swiped. If you see an ATM that has a strange, blank screen like you haven’t seen before, be extra careful.
When your privacy is at stake, you may need to take active steps to protect your information. These are just a few scenarios to avoid if you wish to safeguard your privacy.
