Privacy

Identity theft occurs when someone uses your personal information without your permission to commit fraud or other crimes. While you can’t entirely control whether you will become a victim, there are steps you can take to minimise your risk.

Am I at risk?
The answer is YES if you store any of these on your computer:
• Social Security number
• financial records
• tax returns
• birth date
• bank account numbers

Phishing is the name given to the practice of sending emails purporting to come from a genuine company operating on the Internet.

Trojans take their name from the term ‘Trojan Horse’ and are a type of computer virus which can be installed on your computer without you realising.

‘Money mules’ or ‘money transfer agents’ launder funds obtained as a result of phishing and trojan scams.

How can I keep my information safe?
Virus protection software should be updated regularly, and patches for your operating system and other software programs should be installed to protect against intrusions and infections that can lead to the compromise of your computer files or passwords. Ideally, virus protection software should be set to automatically update each week. Do not open files sent to you by strangers, or click on hyperlinks or download programs from people you don’t know. Be careful about using file-sharing programs. Opening a file could expose your system to a computer virus or a program known as “spyware,” which could capture your passwords or any other information as you type it into your keyboard.

Personal information
Personal information is private information, therefore you should think about how this can be viewed or used by others. For this reason also, you should always obtain the permission or consent of a person if considering giving out information about them. As in the real world, there are risks associated with giving out personal information and you should not give out personal details to others or companies online unless you are certain that they will not abuse your details. You should be aware that by giving out information online for example on chat rooms, you are making it publicly accessible to others.

It should be remembered that when you meet others online, many people use personas and may not be who they appear or may have a motive for finding out information about you. Disclosing information online such as your real name, home address, telephone number, personal life or routines may for example mean that you are vulnerable to ‘identity theft’, whereby the thief uses your details to open bank accounts, credit cards, and email accounts for financial gain. They may also be used to find out personal things that you might want to keep private from others, for example if your thoughts on a sensitive subject or a personal experience are published online, whilst you may be happy to share these with family or friends, you may not wish to share them with others, such as work colleagues.  Remember it is very easy for anyone to find information from web pages using search engines and web browsers.

E-commerce, Shopping online and Internet Banking
Companies often require you to submit a certain amount of personal information for the purpose of verifying your identity for example if you are opening an account to shop online, use a chat room or sign up for an email. You will also be required to give out your credit card details if for example you are purchasing an item online.

You should verify therefore the authenticity of the company and their request, the security of submitting your information, reading any terms and conditions associated with this ).Some companies for example may sell your personal details such as name, email address and phone numbers to other companies who will then contact you with advertising from their company.

 
Recording & updating passwords
Passwords are private security information which are intended to prevent others from accessing or using your accounts fraudulently, hence these should not be shared with others. Family or pet names may be easily guessed by others, therefore it is suggested that you use a combination of letters, capitalisation and numbers which is memorable to yourself but is difficult to for others to anticipate. Attempts are frequently made to trick people into giving away their passwords and account details, for example through ‘Phishing’, the process of fraudulently sending an email to look like it has come from an official bank or company requesting a person’s details so that the scammer can access or use the person’s account.

Photographs 
It has become very easy to send and receive images via a mobile phones or the internet.  Many people also upload their pictures to their personal profiles when chatting, put them on online photo albums, websites or blogs.

It is important to remember that when you send or upload pictures onto the internet, you are making them publicly accessible to others and have limited control over their use as it has become so easy for users to copy and download images.

Think before you send out photographs of yourself online, for example posting pictures of yourself on a web site or in a public profile. Not everyone online will have good intentions, and by publishing photos of yourself or parts of your life, particularly if other details about you are available such as your location, or place of work.

It is also important that you ask the permission of others when posting or uploading photographs of them as these may show private aspects of their lives which they wouldn’t want to share publicly or would have implications for other aspects of their lives.