Updated: 6 ways to protect your consumer privacy
Remember privacy? I do.
I recall the days when bank officers and financial advisors took pride in keeping their clients’ business confidential. Of course, that was before price tags were attached to consumers’ personal information.
Now, businesses try to gain as much personal information about us as they can in order to either build more targeted lists of potential customers or sell it to other businesses.
Why is this blatant use of your personal information allowed? Why should the personal information you divulge to a business become a source of income for them?
And why should you now be bombarded by junk mail, spam emails and unwanted phone calls from the businesses that purchase your information?
Fortunately, the Federal Trade Commission has started moving into this arena more forcefully recently and Congress is beginning to insist that businesses behave in a responsible fashion.
But you can be your own best friend – or worst enemy – when it comes to your privacy, merely by how you protect it.
A Bull’s Eye on Your Back
Recently I visited amazon.com, looking closely at a couple of books I was considering buying. The next time I went to that site, those very books were being singled out, trying to lure me in for a purchase.
Creepy, right?
Anytime we let someone know we’re interested in a subject, such as through a purchase or a subscription to a magazine or online, some business is certain to pick up on that and target us with a related offer.
In addition to wanting to know about our habits, diets and entertainment choices, many businesses are interested in our financial lives, including where we work, how much we earn, whether we pay our bills on time, how much debt we’re carrying and a lot more.
Those spies include companies that extend credit, employers and landlords, and they’ll use that information to make decisions regarding loans, hiring and renting.
Following are a few steps you can take to protect your privacy:
- Just say “no.” When asked for your Social Security number, just say “no” unless divulging your number is the only way you’ll be considered for a job or loan.
- Use a post office box number instead of your street address when you want something mailed to you.
- Pay for products and services in cash as often as possible. Using credit and debit cards leaves a paper trail.
Next time we’ll look at more on this subject, including credit reports and junk mail.
You all are exactly right . I am sick of unwanted phone calls and ads that pop up about items that I have recently searched for. All the big social media companies are constantly developing software to spy on your every aspect of life. It’s difficult in the present socity but we should just not use the social media.
They filter and disect every word of our communications then sell their data. Totally wrong. Turning all of us as a resource just to be data mined.
When the govt starts to use this to control the masses , we are doomed.
Its already staryed on many aspects of our life.
Now my rental payments can only be made online. Payments made by check to many local businesses are charged a “processing fee”. Some of the local restaurants don’t even accept cash. What ever happened to the “all debts public and private” part of currency?
We are drowning in a sea of unwanted mail, email, flyers and telephone calls – less than 1% of which had been requested. I am a disabled veteran with 100% disability, and each day these intrusions are getting much worse.
I would appreciate an article on proven ways to get off of these unwanted and unwarranted intrusions and keep us off for good.
Thank you for publicizing this problem. Maybe someone in government will take notice and give us back our privacy, as we remember it was when we were “growing up”.
Communication is necessary, of course, but not at the level it has become. Our trash can fills up every day with this “junk mail” and we no longer answer the telephone unless we recognize the caller’s ID.
My email inbox has gone from less than 10 email messages/day to over 300!
We are transitioning from using our debit cards to paying in cash, as much as is possible. This should reduce any future intrusions into our lives, but, unfortunately, this will not get us off of those already compiled “lists”. WE NEED HELP!
As far as you all donating to those in need, who suffer a catastrophe. It would be better that you do it with your own money as you see fit. For taking it from the business means you are charging too much for your products. Lowering your prices accordingly would allow people in need that buy your products and they may give to others in need as they choose. Otherwise, your no better then the government welfare system. They choose who gets helped with the peoples money.
Thank you for supporting folks to not give their SSN.
I refuse to do this, quoting what used to be the law: SSN can not be required as a form of identity for banking or commercial purposes. As I understand it, this was a requirement for SSN to pass through Congress. Do I have this right? Does anyone know if this law has changed in the last decades?
Look into the Internet of Things – it’s the creepiest thing I’ve ever seen!!!
Frank, it is worse than you think. Frankly, having books I looked up on Amazon appear the next time I go to Amazon doesn’t bother me. They know what I was looking at. What bothers me is when I look up something on one site and then go to another site and find an ad for that item or some comparable item or start getting e-mails from third parties trying to sell me that.
Paying cash doesn’t always work, either. I stayed in a motel in a major urban area recently, paying with cash, but had to provide an ID WITH Address (local law, they said) AND had to provide a credit card (company policy, they said) which they put a hold on, just in case I snuck an animal in or smoked or trashed the room.
Thanks for the heads up
I agree, however, using a post office box is not allowed on several large businesses due to the only way to verify you received your package. Weird–but what do you do?
When I search for anything online I get ads for that product for weeks after I searched for it. I have also searched for a site and had that ad pop-up trying to get me to buy that product. I even get them from my bank and that really disgusts me. There’s no need for anyone to know what I am looking for regardless of what it is. I guess the days of privacy have given way to the days of piracy.
Good — and accurate — play on words there, Paul. You’re right… that’s what it has turned into.
I’m not sure about your theory given that you also sell on the internet and ask for my information. How is that different? That you have my credit card number puts me at risk, does it not? I only give SS# to doctors and dentists so but certainly they can be hacked, right? Yes, we are all at risk, but you send items you sell to your customers addresses, right? We don’t know who we can trust, that’s true. But, why should I trust you? Just asking….
You gave a lot of very good information. Many people are naïve when it comes to HOW MUCH everything we do reflects back on us, including even LOOKING at an item on on-line sale sites. I was shocked to see everything I’ve ever clicked on come up to lure me again, or more!
I was very shocked when I Googled myself and found my book purchases on Amazon were posted on the internet for all to to see. Wasn’t a problem but could be! I don’t like it!!!
The marketing you speak of is called retargeting. They follow where you go on line and then put up ads that seem to follow you everywhere. You can get Privacy Badger to help stop some of this. https://privacy-badger-chrome.en.softonic.com/ You can also check out the blogs by Judge Anna Von Reitz (Alaska) on http://PaulStramer.net. She has done her homework and dug clear to the bottom of the rabbit hole and is now showing us the way out of it. So much information! Take it in bite-size pieces.
One additional way to pay online is with a prepaid card that one can get from Walmart. You can use whatever info on it you want. Add money to it by going to a cashier at Walmart and handing that cashier your card and the money. They charge a monthly admin fee but it’s worth it for the protection.
Do not use Facebook, Twitter etc and if you do just limited info. I use NORDVPN which conceals my IP address when emailing so they don’t send me ads or know really where the message is coming from. Also use Adblock. Very useful as well.
Recently I attended a technology summit for one of the Convenience store vendors. During this summit, I was shown fuel pumps that were nothing more than a touchscreen and who had cameras installed that would do facial recognition of the purchaser. All of this is being done with the advance of FOG computing. FOG is below the cloud and just above ground connectivity. This is the level where driverless cars will communicate, and purchases will build profiles that are sent to the cloud. You could be driving down the freeway and your car is broadcasting that it is low on gas. Suddenly you will get an ad automatically from a convenience store’s automation system that if you buy gas from them, you will receive a nickel or dime discount per gallon. This level of connectivity between cars and purchasers are predicted to be 50% in play within the next 5 years.
I don’t go to any social media sites such as twitter,facebook, or any others I also don’t go to Amazon for anything or any of their books as they are more sites that does not sell your information or target you to buy something that you were curious about and had no intention of purchasing and like yourself I just tell them no and if they don’t want to take no for an answer I simple just hang up, and be done with it. Hope this helps I try to be nice to others but as you well know their are a bunch of assholes in our world and you just cannot escape them, but you can hang up.
Yes, I found my Amazon purchases posted to the internet.
I applied for a job with a known super market in our area doing the app online. It asked for my soc sec number and wouldn’t let me proceed thru the app without it. I finished, done, Received a letter in the mail from them saying ‘I’m not who they are looking for’. How would they know if I never had an interview? NOW they have my soc sec number. I complained at the store about them having my number and all they said was “Would you like to apply again?” I think not besides I’m not who they want. I was mad so now they know who I am. I don’t like that the app required the number because in the past you don’t give them that until you’re hired or in the process of being hired for sure. This makes job searching very frustrating. Then recently my computer was hacked and I immediately went to my bank to change my accounts with new numbers. I don’t know how it was hacked but I think that is the biggest problem for everyone and security online. I sure hope doing this comment is secure.
Back in the day, cash was king. Having someone’s check in your till meant that you wouldn’t get the money until the end of the week. It took that long to clear the bank.
Now with credit cards, debit cards and even your personal checks can access your bank account at the end of the business day. With easy excess to your bank account, people are being treated more and more as a third party. In short, you are just in the way, just a formality if you will. How often are you requested to have an automatic withdrawal from your bank account? It adds up. ten bucks here twenty bucks there, fifty bucks to transfer your money to a automatic bill. Sometimes it is hard to keep track of it all. You are no longer needed after you have authorized the initial withdrawal.
Now you are playing their game. How to fleece you out of your hard earned cash. How to reach into your pocket and get your cash before you can even count it. And those fees that they charge you; they keep going up and up and they just add up more and more. Even your own bank has gotten into the act. Bounce one check you owe them $35.00 dollars, not to exceed $105.00 per day. That is three bounce cheques. Bank of America will bounce your account, charge you their $35.00 fee then charge you $70.00 more if you don’t pay them back because they had fronted you the cash to cover the insufficient fee in the first place. Ain’t that a kick in the head, huh?
You play their game and you will lose. You will get caught up somehow, somewhere and you will end up paying out your good hard earned money because you played their game their way. Don’t you know the House always win?
Get off the hamster wheel. Stick with the old tried and true ways of doing business – PAY WITH CASH!!! If you want it – then save for it. It will still be there. Life is to short for you to be in debtfor so long. How many people out there owe money only to find out that they are now wage slaves. Meaning they will never become debt free in the next 5, 10, or 15 years.
You have the power! The power of the consumer. If you don’t buy it and it doesn’t sell then the salesman and companies will not turn a profit. Make them hear you. Make them do business your way. Make them lower their prices, improve their quality, add bells and whistles to their bargains. Tell them you want lower prices or you are not interested in their products – most of them are made in China anyway; which means it cost the company fifty cents to make while they charge you an outrageous amount – say $15.00 to $1000.00s of dollars. For example, it costs Apple $5.00 to make an iphone. Yet, they sell this product for $500. to $800.00 per unit. That’s what I call laughing all the way to the bank. How stupid are people to pay that much just to reach out and talk to someone.
Do yourselves a favor; stick to the old ways of doing business. Tell the companies it is your way or the highway. They will listen to you because they want your cash. Stop the automatic charges to your bank account. It is your account – not theirs so take charge of your financial self. Put your big boy and big girl pants on and start to take responsibility of your life.
Thanks Cliff. Totally agree with your advise!