As long-time readers know, I am a Luddite. I scratch my head a lot when it comes to technology. I am not a first adopter of anything and, politically speaking, I tend not to use technology that has the over-riding purpose of replacing perfectly good employees such as self-serve check-out lines at the grocery store. The more moving parts in a machine, the more likely it will break just when I need it. My greater concern too is that convenience sometimes means we sacrifice our privacy.  For example, it was reported this week that people may be stealing credit card numbers from self-serve kiosks machines at Pearson airport. It is only a privacy threat if you check in using your credit card (use your reference number instead) and the investigation is in its early stages but unusual enough patterns have emerged to get to this stage.

But it raises a larger question- why are we sticking our credit cards into random machines? In an outsourced world, what precautions is there to ensure our private information is protected? One of the facts that has come out of this kiosk card threat is that the machines are owned by the airport authority but the data is processed by some outsourced company. I can tell you from my law days this is typical: one party owns the kiosk, one operates it and another maintains it. In other words, lots of people could have access to whatever you stick into the kiosk. The problem with outsourcing (and there’s more than one) is that more and more people have access to your information who you are not directly paying, and who reside in parts unknown, so what vested interest is there in protecting the data?

One would assume that crime against property increases when the economy heads south.  Fraud probably also peaks during the summer when people travel and travellers tend to be easy marks.  Let’s remember to keep our wits about us when it comes to what information we provide to others. Here are a couple of tips:

• Private business knows more about you than the government. Stop feeding them more information and exposing yourself. Government knows your SIN, how much money you declared as taxable and who you work for. Big business knows your address, what days you buy shaving cream, how often you get gas, your demographic, your income bracket, who you call, what websites you hit, when you deposit your pay cheque, what drugs you buy, how much you sold your last home for- AND, it sells all of this information to other business. For example, a government investigation found that the parent company of Winners was collecting all sorts of unnecessary information on its customers, including driver’s license number, when its system got hacked; why would anyone give Winners its driver’s license number? Part of the issue with identity theft now is that we end up on some many lists because we sign up for offers for things we will never buy, give our zip/postal codes to the Ikea cashier when we buy something (stop doing that, they are making money off the data you provide them for FREE!), sign up for needless credit cards at football games, take surveys for stupid prizes etc. etc. STOP IT. Making a marketers job hard will also help to protect your privacy. Don’t give out ANY information about yourself to big business.
• Be diligent. Act swiftly. Check your bank account daily (yes daily) to spot unusual activity. You see something unusual, report it quickly. It limits your damage (see my previous experience with ATM fraud). Order your credit score yearly not only to see your credit worthiness but to spot any identity theft or mistaken identities. Better to clean it up now then when you are applying for credit.
• Use common sense. You don’t shout out your PIN on the street. Why do on-line banking on Wi-Fi? Even on a secure network, how safe is that (I still receive other people’s calls on wireless phones and they supposedly perfected the security on that years ago)? Collect your mail on time (better yet, remove yourself from junk mail lists). Shred anything from your financial institution even if it is sales material. Don’t leave your ATM receipts in the machine (even if the number is partially blocked out). Destroy them at home. Buy a safe, keep your financial information in it and, yes, don’t stick your credit card into strange machines.

Anyone else care to share any tips?

No post tomorrow- been a long week. Have a good weekend.