I don’t care as much about privacy like some people do. My concern is personal security. If I was concerned about people knowing “me” stuff then you wouldn’t be reading this because I’d live in a cave in Wyoming with no Internet and I’d blow glass all day. But personal security is something I deeply care about. The following are both privacy issues and a little personal security in there too.

Don’t throw away anything that can be used against you. For privacy and security reasons consider how someone could use something in your trash against you. I never toss anything with a name or account number on it and I’m careful not to toss DNA related stuff either. And I know people are saying that’s crazy. If it can be planted at a crime scene it’s flushed.

Don’t publish your phone number. Many data aggregators use phone company records to index you. Without a published phone number they have a harder time indexing your name associated with an address. My home phone number is under a pseudonym and it’s also under a business name.

Don’t allow your name to be searchable on Facebook or be on Facebook at all. I broke that rule. When logged into Facebook go HERE to change it.

Don’t broadcast your location. Location-based services (LBS) are information and entertainment services, accessible with mobile devices through the mobile network and utilizing the ability to make use of the geographical position of the mobile device. Twitter, Facebook and others are getting in the game with LBS. Carnegie Mellon University compiled more than 80 location services that don’t have privacy policies or collect and save all data for an indefinite amount of time. I see this more as a personal security issue.

Don’t post videos on Youtube that reveal your personal life. I have a business Youtube page and a personal. The iPhone has a direct connection to Youtube and it’s a blast taking video and quickly uploading. However, my personal page is under another name and all the videos are private. The only way to see them is to login.

Don’t forget to read privacy policies. I don’t like reading privacy policies because they are long winded and confusing. But not knowing what companies may do with your data is not good.

Don’t use your real name as a username. I broke this rule a few hundred times. It’s a privacy issue when you don’t shield your name. It’s a personal security issues not to grab your name allowing someone else to get it and use it against you. Get all of them at Knowem.com.

Don’t put your name on your mailbox or on a plaque on your home. All the postal carrier needs is a street number. There’s no reason to plaster your last name on your home either. I see this more as a personal security issue. But there are certainly privacy concerns here too.

Robert Siciliano personal security expert to Home Security Source discussing Location Services on The CBS Early Show.

Tags: ADT, Home, Security, systems

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Comment by Robert Siciliano on April 2, 2010 at 4:31am: Thanks Buffet and all you Geeks. Great feedback.

Comment by YOGESH PAWAR on April 1, 2010 at 10:25pm: thanks for the advices, but i would still prefer to say taht every person may have their own way of privacy control

Comment by Matt on March 31, 2010 at 7:52pm: There are a lot of encryption solutions out there, but have you actually tried to use them? I have. I don't consider PGP easy to install or use. I don't believe that the average person is going to go through what it takes to install and use these tools that allow you to be anonymous and secure. That's why we created ThreadThat.com. It's easy, free and secure. Nothing to install or download. You don't need to give up any personal info to use the service. You have the option of using multi-factor authentication and user-generated passkeys. There is nothing on the Internet that is easier to use, as secure and free.

Comment by Robert Siciliano on March 31, 2010 at 7:50am: I hear you James and appreciate your position. My suggestions may not be convenient, or even functional based on your observations, but they are more secure than the norm. So do what you can with what you have to work with everyone.

Comment by Justen on March 31, 2010 at 6:45am: If you really want to know how you're likely to have your identity stolen, and hopefully how to prevent that from happening, pick up No Tech Hacking. Great book, discusses the most prominent techniques social engineers use to get around the hairy technical difficulty of real hacking.

Privacy in any real sense doesn't exist of course in the age of cellphone cameras and the Patriot Act, but you can at least make sure that other people aren't using your identity. These are two somewhat separate issues. If you really want to carry on conversations and activities that nobody can eavesdrop on it's time to study up on encryption to hide the content (PGP works great for email and IM, and disk encryption is a good start for your stored data - if you are smart enough to secure your passphrases) and anonymous networks to mask your identity from third parties (e.g. TOR, freenet, bitcoin for monetary exchange, etc). Don't kill the messenger, but seriously, you don't have any privacy at all until you do that (and wear a mask in public). With that, you have a tiny bit, but I can still probably Google your entire personal history and a lot of other "private" matters - and I'm not a Fortune 500 data mining company, I'm just an average(ish) Joe.

Comment by James Young on March 31, 2010 at 4:37am: Robert,

As a letter carrier, I have to disagree. We don't know people's living situation so it is necessary to know every name that lives in a particular house. One of the problems is maiden names. In apartment buildings it is REQUIRED to have a name on the mailbox because of the frequency of people moving in and out. Additionally, there is a specific postal regulation for apartment buildings. My personal rule when it comes to apartments is... no name, no mail.

Additionally, people can put their names INSIDE of the mailbox if they're that concerned. Frankly, it doesn't matter as the letter carrier visits EVERY home, EVERY day.

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