 Email
Breach: 8 Ways to Protect Yourself
1.Get out of marketing data bases. They all
allow you to opt out, if you can find them. For example,
you can block your name from being used by any of Epsilon's
clients, including catalog marketers and retailers. One
big problem: The database company might retain your name and
just block it from being used. If a thief hacks in, he
gets the blocked names, too.
The Privacy Rights Clearing House lists 135 data brokers who are
selling your name to all corners, and tells you whether or not
they have opt-out policies. If they do, you have to go to
the brokers' websites and suppress your name yourself. I
checked some of the sites and the opt-out screens are hard to
find. One likely place is the broker's Privacy Policy,
usually shown in small print at the bottom of the page.
2. Opt out, or unsubscribe, from every commercial email list
you're on. "They're required to give you that option."
says Greg Aaron, director of domain security for Afilias, an
internet infrastructure company. It you opt out at the
source, your name should be removed from the large, pooled data
bases.
3. Stop most direct mail. The Direct Mail
Association provides a website, letting you opt out of various
types of promotional mail from its members: credit offers,
catalogs, magazine offers, requests for donations, and others.
That should stop mail from national companies you haven't done
business with before. Your opt-out lasts for five years.
After that you have to sign up again.
The DMA opt-out won't stop mail from non-members, such as
local businesses, charities, or mail from a company where you've
shopped. You will have to contact those mailers directly
and in writing (phone calls won't work). Be sure to tell
them you don't want your name shared with other companies, such
as Epsilon, for marketing purposes.
4. Stop your bank from sharing your name. Under
the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), you can tell your bank not
to give your name to any of its affiliates for marketing
purposes, as well as to outside marketing firms. You have
to give notice in writing, citing your rights under FCRA.
Ask for a written acknowledgment that you've been taken off the
list. These opt-outs, too, might last for just five years.
5. Stop sharing personal information on your Facebook,
LinkedIn, or MySpace pages with the general public. Or,
share only what you wouldn't mind seeing in a database, and
leave off bank identifiers such as your mother's name.
Social networks can be mined, using your email address.
6. Stop phone calls from telemarketers, by signing up
with the National Do Not Call registry. When the registry
began, you could stop these calls for only a limited number of
years. Since 2008, however, you've been able to block them
permanently.
7. Opt out of credit card offers. you can stop
receiving them by signing up with the OptOutPreScreen, run by
the consumer credit reporting industry.
8. Don't be fooled. Never open an email telling
you that you've won something, or that you have an unclaimed
package, or that there's a problem with your tax return or bank
account. Just by opening it, you might introduce malware
into your machine, which searches for passwords to financial
accounts. If your bank account of credit card company
apparently sends you an email, asking you to make corrections in
your account, delete. It's a cheat. Or call the
institution to see if it's legit, before entering any
information. With the Epsilon break-in, you might get
phony phishing messages from familiar retailers, too. for
more tips, check the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse and
APWG, an industry organization that fights online fraud.
Information provided through Yahoo Finance written by Jane
Bryant Quinn Thursday, April 7, 2011
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