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If you work at home, guard your personal privacy or you'll never get it back.
Three easy steps for protecting your privacy if you have a home business.
by Open-Your-Own-Home-Business.com
The average person, including those of us with home businesses, have absolutely no idea how our privacy is ravaged on an almost daily basis. Those of us that have home based businesses are exposed to an extra danger of putting out our personal information in the course of running our home based business.
A work at home scholarship consultant who is also an American Express cardholder called American Express about her account recently. To her shock and horror the American Express representative asked her to identify herself by telling the operator the make and model of all the cars that she owned. “I’m not going to tell you that!” exclaimed the customer, “That’s none of your business!
To protect the security and privacy of your home and family, follow these very important privacy tips if you work at home or operate a home business:
- NEVER use your work at home address on ANYTHING work-related. NEVER. Before you ever apply for a job, print a resume, buy anything on credit or register your business, get yourself a private mail box (in the yellow pages under ‘mail boxes’) in your company’s name. Consider getting another one for your personal mail. These boxes cost about $10.00 a month but will afford you far more value than that in privacy and peace of mind!
- If you own a home based business, don’t allow the telephone company to print your address. They may balk a little bit, but INSIST on leaving it blank. Those telephone records are bought by thousands and thousands of entities and are also published on the internet for free viewing by millions. Broadband phone companies, such as Vonage, may have even better privacy practices and you can get new phone numbers at no cost.
- Get a separate telephone number for your business. Add paging and voice mail to it if you wish. Point an 800 number to it if you want your customers to be able to call you toll free. NEVER use your personal telephone number on ANYTHING! Consider making up a fake telephone number of renting a voice mail number to give to those privacy invading retailers that won’t sell you anything until you give them your telephone number.
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“Okay then” said the operator, “then give me the names of your family members so I can verify who you are.”
Horrified at the intrusion into her privacy, the American Express customer again exclaimed, “I’m not going to tell you that, it’s none of your business!”
“But I already have all of this information on my screen” said the operator.
Unable to believe that this could possibly be true the American Express customer gave the name of her dog as a family member thinking the American Express operator was bluffing. Wrong. She wasn’t bluffing. “My records show that that’s not one of your family members.” remarked the privacy-invading American Express employee.
The American Express customer felt so violated that she informed the privacy bandit that if American Express found itself unable to respect her privacy, she found herself unable to continue using their card. She cut her American Express card in pieces and stopped doing business with the company altogether.
American Express is the same company that has come out with their new Blue card with the “smart chip”.
Another security and privacy conversation took place when a privacy-conscious young woman was pulled over by a policeman for having a defective tail light. As was the law in her state the officer asked to see her proof of insurance and upon doing so, noticed that the young woman had cut out her address from the insurance form, leaving only her name so it could be identified by law enforcement if necessary. “I could give you a ticket for this” the police officer said. “You’re not supposed to cross out your address from this form.” The young woman argued passionately that if someone stole her car they would then also have access to her home address and her garage door opener, making it easy for them to immediately burglarize her house, too. The officer chastised her but didn’t give her a ticket. Chalk up one victory for privacy warriors.
How much do you know about your privacy?
Take this simple privacy IQ Test:
Did you know that every time you call a toll-free number your telephone number is permanently captured by the person or company you called, even if your number is unlisted?
Did you know that in some cases when you call a toll-free number the person at the other end of the phone could actually be looking at map showing the exact location of the address where you’re sitting when you call? In some cases other very intensely personal information can also show up on their screen, as you’ve already read in this article.
Did you know that when you use those “discount” or frequent buyer cards that are made available by virtually every business nowadays that all of your purchasing transactions may become almost public knowledge? Such information can then be used to profile you. It may seem innocent enough, but think again. Would you really want your insurance company, who has your health records and is just waiting for an excuse to deny your claims, to know that you buy potato chips five times a month?
Did you know that when you buy a car that has the supposedly handy “On Star” navigation feature, you can be tracked constantly all over the globe?
Did you know that virtually anyone can buy mailing lists of almost anything? The IRS reportedly buys mailing lists, for example, of vehicle records and records of boat ownership and records that may reveal taxpayers that are hiding income. Companies can buy mailing lists of families with kids, families with a certain income, families that lean toward a certain political party, families that spend a certain amount of money, families that buy certain items in the mail, families that donate to certain groups, families that have specific lifestyle interests, such as camping or reading. One man tried to buy a list of single women who earn over $100,000 a year. There are TENS OF THOUSANDS of these types of mailing lists. How many are you on?
And while it may not seem like a big deal to some people, for others it has meant that they have found themselves as wrongful suspects in crimes simply for being in the wrong place at the wrong time and having been falsely profiled, while others have been the target of such crimes as identify theft and stalking simply because their privacy was ravaged.
Hard to believe since our right to privacy is supposedly guaranteed by our constitution.
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