What are Companies Doing to Protect Your Personal Information?
When you swipe your credit or debit card at a major retailer, you expect it to be a safe transaction, right? WRONG. Big companies and businesses are highly unconcerned about the safety of your credit information. Even the government seems surprisingly lax when it comes to protecting your information.
The public sat up and paid attention when a recent investigation in Miami uncovered a 11 person identity theft ring with international influence that targeted customers of large chain stores and stole millions of credit card numbers. Another ring admitted to using random entry of numbers into a municipal court site to bring up traffic records, which would often display the rest of the victims information (name, address, driver’s license number).
The most recently publicized event exposed the loss of a airport security laptop, with information of 33,000 passengers. The Federal Trade Commission, the IRS and the Treasury Department have had multiple security breaches, many of which are never heard about by the average consumer.
In most cases, the credit card company may foot some or all of the bill for fraudulent activity, and of course there are public apologies from the responsible party and promises to tighten security. Neither the government nor big business, however, seems inclined to really help the victims regain their lives
Time to Protect Your Information Yourself
This means it is up to us to protect our credit and personal information. Making sure we shred sensitive documents, avoid giving out extra information and keeping a strict eye on our credit report is imperative. You can request your credit reports on a regular basis (you get one free from each reporting agency per year, after that there is a charge) or you can subscribe to an identity theft protection service for just a little more investment.
By protecting your information, you protect yourself, and lessen the chances that a serious attempt at identity theft will get off the ground. Don’t feel like you have to give up shopping - but be aware that the only person looking out for you is you!
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