Two recent articles discuss privacy breaches. 

“Sidestepping the Risk of a Privacy Breach”, posted by the nytimes.com February 7, 2014, discussed the security of personal data when using “plastic”.  A representative of the American Bankers Association expressed concern that criminals seem to be ahead of the marketplace, the regulators and the consumers. 

Starting in 2005, there have been 4.167 known breaches that exposed 663,587,386 records of personal information.  Recent headlines have revealed continuing breaches at some very large and sophisticated entities. 

Over 30% of people whose information was breached in 2013 became victims of some kind of identity theft.  That is an increase from about 12% three years ago.

Emails are increasingly exposing us to the threat of breaches to our privacy.  If you receive an email asking for personal information and there is anything that raises concern, go to the website and call the entity.  If there is a known breach, it may be on the website or the representative of the entity can tell you if it is legitimate.  

“Leading a cash-only life is a theoretical possibility, but it boxes you out of most online shopping and makes traveling difficult. Going cash-only mostly means endless trips to the A.T.M. and all the fees and hassle that come with it”.

“With the right tactics, however, it’s easy enough for most people to greatly bolster their odds of avoiding the worst of the problems.”  

Gregory Karp’s article “Think before buying ID theft protection” was in The Chicago Tribune Feb. 9, 2014.

He believes that you probably should not subscribe to identify “protection” services, “if your only concern is a thief fraudulently using your payment card information.  Typically, that’s not a big deal, and you won’t lose any money. ”

A representative from the Identity Theft Resource Center was quoted: “You can’t make the blanket statement that all of these services are bad or not worth your while.”  A representative of the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse indicated the services have “dubious value.  It’s fairly expensive, and there are other ways you can protect yourself.”

He noted that Consumer Reports had the following on their website: “Don’t get fleeced by identity-theft protections services.”  Gregory noted that some felt the claim of “prevention” and “protection” are exaggerations.  The benefit of these services is that they provide more timely alerts to a breach.

If you are thinking of getting this type of service learn exactly what you get.  You need to educate yourself and follow through if you do not get this type of service.
Back to Top