Staying Anonymous

Long-Term Privacy Protection Measures

• Ask how your information will be used. Before you give any personal information to a business, ask how it will be used. Ask if the business will share your information with others. If so, insist on having your personal information kept confidential. Get a statement of confidentiality in writing from a manager, supervisor or executive.
• Control your financial information. Write to your bank, credit card, insurance, and securities companies and tell them that you want to "opt-out" of sharing your personal financial information with outside companies. You are permitted to do this under federal law.
• Be protective of your Social Security number (SSN). Only provide it when you know it is required (tax forms, employment records, most banking, stock and property transactions). If the SSN is requested by a government agency, look for the Privacy Act notice. This tells you if your SSN is required, what will be done with it, and what happens if you refuse to provide it.
• Quit any supermarket discount clubs you might belong to. Either don't sign up for new ones or shop at stores that don't use "loyalty cards." When the card is scanned at the checkstand, your name and address can be linked to your purchases. If you need the savings but don't want a profile compiled on your shopping habits, sign up under a generic name with no address.
• Read the fine print on applications and order forms. You may be given additional privacy protection or have it taken away in almost unreadable text.
• Watch the opt-in box. When you do register for a Web site, be sure to see if the opt-in box is automatically checked. This means you will receive e-mail from the company. If you don't want to, uncheck it.
• Be assertive. Most businesses will not want to go to the trouble of sharing their privacy policies, or will not want to risk the legal liability of backing up their policy with a written pledge. Insist, and keep insisting. If they refuse, refuse to do business with them, and tell others to do the same. Too many companies see your personal information as theirs to trade. Make sure they know it's not.
• Avoid signing up. If you can, try not to subscribe to publications, join record clubs, register for Web sites, send in warranty cards, or anything else that requires you to complete a lengthy application that asks for lots of personal information. If you must do some of these things, give as little information as possible, and be sure to ask how it will be used.
• Follow privacy developments. If you're going to be an effective advocate for your own privacy and that of others, you have to know what's going on. Keep an eye on the news and take special note of privacy related legislation. Besides Anonymous Consumer, one excellent source for privacy news is www.privacy.ca.gov.