Remar Sutton's Privacy Webinar, November 2011

Protecting your personal and financial privacy means educating yourself to take on a complex challenge. You might say that fighting for your privacy rights is like taking on an octopus with many arms (one issue, lots of manifestations).

The resources in this section will help you stay informed about privacy issues and take steps to protect your personal and financial privacy.

• Interesting Issues and Stories from the Webinar
• Staying Informed and Making Yourself Heard
• Phishing and Pharming for Your Personal and Financial Information
• Other Scams to Watch Out For
• Enhancing Your Computer and Online Privacy
• Five Steps to Protect Your Privacy and Identity
• Make a Complaint
• Information Specifically for Seniors

Story from the Washington Post: Little-known firms tracking data used in credit scores

Online Tracking and Behaviorial Profiling issues: The Electronic Privacy Information Center’s excellent updates on some key privacy issues.

• Report: Internet Privacy tools Generally don’t work.
• “Do Not Track” bills introduced in Congress, fought by lobbyists.
• Gallup Poll: Public Opposed to Online tracking.
• FTC recommends reasonably good “Do Not Track” notices—but avoids the tough stuff.

COALTION CALLS FOR INVESTIGATION OF FACEBOOK’S TRACKING AFTER MEMBERS SIGN OFF

Privacy, consumer, and civil liberties groups, which include the American Civil Liberties Union, Consumer Action, American Library Association, Electronic Privacy Information Center and the Center for Digital Democracy asked the Federal Trade Commission to investigate Facebook. Facebook had been secretly tracking users after they logged off of Facebook's webpage, and had recently announced changes in business practices that "[gave] the company far greater ability to disclose the personal information of its users to its business partners..."

Story from The Los Angeles Times: FACEBOOK CLOSE TO PRIVACY SETTLEMENT concerning retroactive changes

There are lots of sites on the Internet that "cover" consumer privacy. How can you determine which sites deserve your trust? Here are a few tips:

• Determine who runs the site. Look for an "about us" or "contact" page. If you can't find one or they don't clearly identify who they are then find other sites that do. If there's a list of sponsors, check it out.
• Read their privacy policy. If you can't find one, find other sites that provide one.
• Advertising. Does the site have advertising? If so, what is being advertised? Could the advertising influence the site content?

What is phishing (pronounced fishing)? These are scams that are trying to steal your personal and financial information. Phishing has primarily been online in the form of email or pop-up messages but can also occur over the phone or through the mail. Phishers have even started using text messages.

Phishers impersonate legitimate financial institutions—banks, credit unions—and businesses. The phishers cast a wide net that's bound to find persons that do business with the impersonated financial institution or company.

Email and pop-up messages may have a link to click or a phone number to call; text messages have included a toll-free phone number to call. In the case of a link, it usually goes to a fake website that mimics a legitimate site.

Besides phishing, various other scams also arrive in your inbox. Here are brief descriptions of some of the most common.

The "Nigerian" Scam also called "Advance Fee" Scam

The email is requesting help to get large sums of money out of a foreign country. They promise you big profits in exchange for your help. Before you receive any money, you'll have to provide money to cover transaction and transfer costs and attorney fees plus you'll need to provide them with your bank account numbers. The "Nigerian" Scam: Costly Compassion from the FTC has more information.

Advance-Fee Loan Scam

These emails promise that a loan or credit will be approved even if you've been turned down many times already. But in order to get this loan you have to pay a fee. Advance-Fee Loan Scams: 'Easy' Cash Offers Teach Hard Lessons from the FTC has more information.

The many products mentioned in this section are good examples of those that are available in the various categories. You should research these and other products and decide which products fit your needs.

An important way to help enhance your computer privacy is to install and keep up to date these types of programs: