Managing Privacy in Today's Digital World.
Using privacy protection services, commonly called identity theft protection services, can be like playing whack-a-mole.?But over the last 10 years or so, the need for them has been accelerating, and they are getting better and better at what they do. ?I was reminded of the need for them as I recently assisted a woman with a credit card fraud issue. ?
The bottom line is that we have been operating in a digital world the last 25 years or so, and as more businesses have made their “Digital Transformations
The net is that our data is out on the web in a massive way and is the hands of data brokers – who buy it and sell it without our knowledge. (They sell it without our knowledge, but to understand how this started many years ago as the digital age began, take a look at any major corporation’s privacy policy that you might do business with.?
Our data is used in too many ways to count, with some of it being useful, but it also is often in the hands of bad actors that are using it for criminal purposes. ?And this is big business. The most significant problem is that given the amount of data involved and where it’s used, bad actors can steal identities, and also target people for various scams. (Robo calls and other means.) ?And of course, it also puts minors at significant risk.
What are data brokers? They are entities that collect and analyze or sell your personal information to third parties for profit or use it themselves without your consent.
The lengthy list of those that use the data include:
·????????Data brokers that service HR departments use personal information to offer background screening
·????????Data brokers that service marketing organizations to collect information about your browsing habits, past purchases, and interests and sell it to third parties for targeted marketing campaigns
·????????Data brokers that collect background information to provide assessment reports to various investment and business companies for Risk mitigation
·????????Specific people search brokers offer users (this can be anyone) personal information searches to look up contact details and background information
·????????Data brokers that collect personal background and financial information to banks and credit companies and for calculation of a “credit score”
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Across the globe, it’s estimated there are over 4,000 data brokers! In the US there are several hundred data brokers.
The current issue is that although these brokers do have processes for removal of data, you have to deal with them individually, and I think it’s fair to say that their processes are less than friendly.
Over the last several years major things have occurred that can make the process of at least trying to get better control of the data on you. One has been the identity theft services
Another fairly recent positive occurrence is the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA). That law requires most data brokers and large companies to actually delete your personal information, or stop selling it, if you tell them to.?It also lets consumers request a copy of their personal data, and to authorize an “agent” to go out and make those tedious requests on their behalf. (Those agents are the Identity theft services.) And really good news is that a number of other states are following California with similar laws.?
I could expand on this topic considerably, but I want to keep it relatively brief. And note that I have written this from a consumer perspective, but that businesses have the same problem of maintaining control of their data
?I’ll close by saying that I have been asked on occasion if I use any of the Identity Theft services and my answer is yes. I use multiple sources. I use Norton’s LifeLock, and tools within and Malwarebytes. However, my favorite of the mostly standalone products, is DeleteMe. I like the interface, ease of use, and the fact that they do periodic reviews automatically – remember that the data proliferates and is not a one-and- done - and although they do use automated processes, they have humans that assist in the cleanup. Some of the companies don’t.
DeleteMe also has great privacy tools like masked email, and credit card masking. I also like the fact that they have been in the business a very long time.
If you are interested in looking into an identity theft product, I suggest you test a couple of them on their trial versions and see what you like. I won't list them all here as there are so many, but beyond DeleteMe I personally thought a couple of others were interesting. If you also are shopping for antivirus and other services combined, you might want to take a look at Aura. It's relatively new, but well-funded. And new player Optery is also interesting, but again, they also appear to be well funded.
In closing, don't be panicked when you look at the amount of data that is out there on you, as we have to live in this world, but do take it seriously and do you best to manage it. Good luck!