Millions of people, every day, depend on one piece of electronic equipment to do just about everything:  their smartphone.  Back in the day, very few people had cell phones, and those that did used them to make emergency calls every now and then.  Over the years, the simple cell phone has evolved into the smartphone.  The smartphone is a multi-functional device that allows a person to send e-mail, update social networking, shop on line, play games and do anything else that can be done on a computer.  Many cars have built in GPSs, but if yours doesn’t, that’s OK because you can use your Navigation app on your smartphone.  In fact, one of the least used functions of a smartphone today is actually the one that allows you to make phone calls.  It’s amazing that this one, small device can do so much, but what does this mean when it comes to privacy?  Because the smartphone holds a large quantity of personal information regarding our shopping habits, social networking, e-mail and even banking, it now makes it easier for you to be tracked and targeted for on-line ads. 

Every day, more and more people are downloading hundreds of apps made specifically for the smartphone.  If you’re low on gas, the GasBuddy app can tell you which station has the lowest prices with the shortest wait time (which came in handy during SuperStorm Sandy when gas prices went up and the lines were hours long!).  Banks now offer apps that make it easy to deposit a check from anywhere.  All you have to do is snap a picture of your check using your smartphone and it’s deposited into your account.  If you’re in unfamiliar territory, you can count on Google Maps to find directions to the hotel or restaurant where you are to have your business meeting, then after the meeting, you can use the e-mail function to check in with your office to let everyone know the status of that big project.  After your workday is done, you can relax in your room and read your local newspaper, watch your local news, update your social networking status, play games or even read a book.  If you’re feeling under the weather, just log onto WebMD and enter your symptoms to get a quick diagnosis or if you are having trouble with your toddler, you can check in with your favorite parenting site to see what others have done to remedy the issue.  You are never far from home or the office as long as you have your smartphone.

 But what does all this convenience mean to your privacy?  Every site you log on to and every app you download requires you to enter some personal information, which is all saved to your smartphone.  Don’t forget that many on-line businesses share information gathered with third parties.  Is it worth risking your privacy in order to have the convenience of doing just about everything from this one device?  Surprisingly, most people choose convenience over privacy.  They feel that entering a birth date or zip code in order to have 24 hour access to websites no matter where they travel is well worth the effort.  They don’t realize how this can jeopardize their privacy since millions of people may live in a particular zip code and millions more can have a particular birth date.  One important factor isn’t taken into consideration:  only one person has that zip code and birth date on that particular smartphone.

 Each time you enter personal information for a smartphone app or download, you are risking your privacy.  On-line marketers can use your information in order to target you for specific ads.  They know what city your home is in from your zip code, they know your age from your birth date, they know which websites you frequent, and through the GPS function on your smartphone, they know where you are at any given time.  Add your e-mail address into the mix and these marketers can fill your inbox with ads for more apps, shops, products or anything else.  Your browser will also be giving you suggestions on apps or products you may be interested in because your history shows what you have purchased or downloaded.

 App developers claim that a consumer must give their personal information in order to really benefit from their apps.  There is, however, some debate as to what the risks to privacy are that has even Congress involved.  As of now, what is being discussed the most is a way for consumers to choose a “Do Not Track” option on the sites they frequent but, so far, there is no solution to the privacy issue.

We all have many concerns when it comes to our privacy.  There are so many things to think about when it comes to identity theft or being hacked when using public Wi-Fi or wireless routers.  But do parents of young children think about what could happen if their children are given total, unsupervised access to the Internet?  Judging by some of the things I see and read, I don’t think they do.  Children as young as 8 years old are being allowed to log onto the Internet with no parental supervision, which means that these parents either don’t realize that this can put their children in danger, or that these parents refuse to believe that their children will find dangerous places on-line.

Do Not Talk to Strangers

There was a time back in the 60s and 70s when parents were criticized for using the television set as a babysitter.  Busy parents would sit their children in front of the television to watch cartoons while they did their daily chores.  The children would be occupied for hours watching their favorite characters get into all kinds of mischief while mom and dad did the yard work, cooking and cleaning.  Today, instead of the television, more and more parents are sitting their children in front of the computer to occupy themselves on the Internet.  The cartoon characters that the children of the 60s and 70s watched got into a lot of trouble, but those characters never enticed the children watching to come join them.  With the Internet, it’s a completely different story.  There are sites that children are finding that allow them to talk to random strangers.  These strangers sometimes will get the children’s trust, then will get the children’s personal information like full names, addresses and telephone numbers.  You wouldn’t allow your 8 year old to walk the streets of a large city alone, would you?  Well, allowing your 8 year old to “walk” the Internet alone is just as dangerous.

The solution isn’t as simple as not having Internet service.  Because of budget cuts, schools all over the country are turning to the use of e-textbooks because it’s just too expensive to buy new books each year for each child.  In order to access these e-textbooks, students must log onto the schools’ websites.  Here, they can not only study, but they can also get extra help with their homework from teachers who volunteer to tutor.  In other words, today, having a computer with Internet access is a necessity for all students, from elementary school through college.  Since parents also need to use the Internet for various personal and business projects, it’s not uncommon for each member of the household to have their own computer.  Each computer is not only Internet ready, but each one likely has a webcam built right in.  It’s dangerous to allow a child to have a computer with Internet access in his or her own room, but the combination of Internet and webcam makes it all the more dangerous.   There are parents who will not even allow their children to walk to a school that may only be a block or two away, but they will feel it’s perfectly all right to allow those same children to be alone on the Internet.  Parents:  you teach your children not to talk to strangers on the city streets, but now, you need to extend this to the Internet.  Word is spreading from child to child about sites that will let them talk to strangers.  Make no mistake about this; if your child has not yet heard of or found one of these sites, they soon will and you need to be ready for it.

One of these “talk to strangers” sites is Omegle.  The concept of the site was to use the Internet as a meeting place for people who would normally never have a chance to meet in real life.  It is a place where strangers can chat with other strangers from all over the world.  Omegle was created by Leif K-Brooks, an 18 year old living in Brattleboro, Vermont.  The site was up and running on March 25, 2009.  Within one month of going live, there were 150,000 users.  The number of users is not going down and the site is still going strong.  There is no registration necessary to use the site, there is no charge for its use and it’s not monitored.  Yes, there is a disclaimer that says that users must be at least 18 years old, but on the Internet, you can be any age you choose.  That being said, Omegle is one of the more popular sites of very young children.

In the first year or two, Omegle’s chat was done via text only.  Today, users have a choice between text and video.  Mixing a child, a stranger and video chat can be a very dangerous combination.  One young girl’s story comes to mind when I think of children video chatting with strangers:  Amanda Todd.  Canadian teenager Amanda Todd was just 13 years old when she found that she could video chat with strangers from around the world.  She was a pretty girl who liked when boys and even grown men would tell her how beautiful she was.  One day, a man she was chatting with convinced her to lift her shirt and flash her breasts for him.  She did it.  What she didn’t know was that during that brief flash, the man on the other end of the camera took a screenshot of her.  She didn’t realize that one frame of a video chat could be frozen like that.

During her video chats, Amanda didn’t think there was anything wrong with giving her name.  The man who Amanda flashed on camera knew her name, made a page on Facebook showing that he was a boy Amanda’s age and sent her a friend request.  Amanda accepted.  This “boy” told her that the following semester, he would be going to her school and asked her if she could get her friends to accept him as a Facebook friend.  Once he had her entire friends list, he proceeded to send each one on that list the photo he took of Amanda lifting her shirt.  He also sent the photo to the school’s website for everyone to see.  That one moment of what Amanda thought of as teenage silliness made her a target for bullying.  Everyone in the school called her nasty names and not even her closest friends would associate with her anymore.  Amanda was very depressed for months and her parents decided that the best thing to do for the family would be to move.  Things were good for a while and Amanda was making new friends at her new school.  She even made a new Facebook page listing her new school and with a new list of friends.  This is what her tormenter was waiting for.  He again sent her a friend request that she accepted and he sent the photo to everyone on the new list and her new school’s site.  Amanda couldn’t take any more.  She wrote flashcards and used them to tell her story in a YouTube video.  On October 10, 2012, just a few days after posting her video on YouTube, Amanda’s parents found her hanged body.  Amanda’s tormenter has disappeared and has never been identified.

The story of Amanda Todd isn’t the only one of its kind and it demonstrates what can happen to a child when left alone with the Internet.  Children do things on the spur of the moment and think nothing of it, like flashing a stranger.  They sometimes are only thinking in the moment, not of any consequences that their actions might have.  Aside from worrying that they may be inappropriate photos of their children floating around the Internet, parents also need to think about what information their children are giving out that could become a privacy issue.  There have been children chatting on-line, thinking they are chatting with a child their age, so they have given information such as full name, phone number address and school name.  The “child” they thought could be a new pen pal or foreign boyfriend or girlfriend could in reality be a pedophile.  Supposedly, the chat on these sites is anonymous, but that doesn’t stop people of any age from freely giving out information.  Not only do some chatters lie about their ages, they also lie about their locations, so one who is thought to be living in Asia could really be right about the corner.  Even with only a name, someone could look that name up on Facebook and get all the information he or she needs in order to stalk someone.

In addition to Omegle, there is another site where anyone, including children, can randomly chat with strangers.  The name of this site is Chatroulette.  Once again, a teenager created this site.  He is Andrey Ternovsky of Moscow, Russia, who was just 17 when he came up with the concept.  The idea came to him when he was watching The Deer Hunter.  In that movie, prisoners of war were forced to play Russian Roulette as a way for their guards to find amusement.  Chatroulette is like Russian Roulette because every connection could bring you in contact with a different stranger each time, or you could connect with the one you just ended a conversation with.  This site covers the world just like Omegle, but the one difference is that you need to register to use Chatroulette.  This may seem like it would make it difficult for a child to use the site, but it’s not.  Registration is free, so no credit card or bank account information would be needed.

Unofficially, a study was made on the subject of Chatroulette.  Here is what this study brought to light:

1. Connections with and from people in the US accounted for over half of all connections made.
2. Only 11% of all connections were female, while 89% were male.
3. Many video connections showed nothing but an empty chair.
4. 1 of every 8 connections that showed someone on the other side of the camera was of a naked and/or masturbating person.

Will you still allow your child to use the Internet without your supervision?

One other thing to consider that is very troubling is that both sites, Chatroulette and Omegle, as that you allow them access to your webcam.  A lot of children who have computers set up in their rooms don’t turn them off and always have the Internet running.  Think of how remote access to your child’s webcam can impact that child if the webcam was turned on when your child was dressing for school, or even just sleeping.

Concern has been voiced about these sites.  American psychiatrist, Dr. Keith Ablow, who is also a best-selling author commented about Chatroulette that, “Parents should keep all their children off the site because it’s much too dangerous for children.  It’s a predator’s paradise.  This is one of the worst faces of the Internet that I’ve seen.  It’s disconnecting human relationships rather than connecting them.”  Really, now?

On CBS’s The Early Show, Ernie Allen, President of the National Center of Missing & Exploited Children said that Chatroulette is “the last place parents want their kids to be.  This is a huge red flag; this is extreme social networking.  This is a place kids are going to gravitate to.”

Chatroulette creator Andrey Ternovsky was quoted in The New York Times as saying, “Everyone finds his own way of using the site.  Some think it is a game, others think it is a whole unknown world, others think it is a dating service.  I think it’s cool that such a concept can be useful for so many people.”  When asked, he said he was aware of some people masturbating or standing around naked in front of their cameras, but added that this is not a use he agrees with.

Many parents will feel that their children would never know how to find sites such as these, but that’s not the case.  Don’t be so quick to say, “Not MY child” because it’s only a matter of time until your child will hear about these sites from their friends or classmates.  Children are finding and using Omegle and Chatroulette with disastrous results.  The only way to stop this is for all parents of young children to closely supervise them each time they go on the Internet.   Take the computer out of your child’s room and put it in a common area of the house.  Shut it down with a parental password in place when the child goes to bed so there is no temptation to go on-line after the parents have gone to bed.  Even though you know you can’t keep your child innocent until they move out of your house, you still don’t want them seeing adult content when they’re still in elementary school.  If you make a small effort, your child’s privacy, and yours, can stay safe.

For more tips and suggestions on how to keep you and your family safe, please download the free Privacy Guide offered at the top of this page.  You will be glad you did.

The founders of Instagram were approached by Facebook in early 2012 regarding an offer to buy the then newly created company.  The price offered:  $1 billion.  It took a while, but in September 2012, just before Facebook went public, the sale was finalized in the amount of $750 million. Instagram’s founders and its few employees couldn’t be happier about this deal, but did they realize that it was about to become a privacy fiasco for the thousands of people who had photos posted to the site?  Shortly after the acquisition, a new policy was put into place that says Facebook has the right to sell any or all of the 5 billion-plus photos that were posted on Instagram’s site.

Just 3 months after Intstagram’s purchase by Facebook, on January 16, 2013, a new policy regarding photos was put in place.  Starting on that date, Facebook has the right to sell any photo that was posted on Instagram without paying, or even notifying, the users who posted those photos.  If you read the updated policy and deleted your Instagram account before January 16^th, this was the only way you could have stopped the sale of your photos.  However, if you didn’t read the update and your account with Instagram was still active as of that date, you are in danger of your photos being sold.  Instagram users certainly weren’t happy about this detail.

What all this means is that if you use Instagram to post photos and did not delete your account before January 16, 2012, you could be facing a huge privacy concern.  Any photos that you posted on Instagram after the effective policy date can be sold to any advertiser and used in any way.  You could be on your way to work or school one morning and see a photo of you and your friends partying at a local bar up on a billboard advertising that bar.  Or maybe the billboard is for a beach resort that you visited and the photo is of you lying on the beach in a very skimpy bikini.  Another possibility is that you could be skimming through a magazine in your dentist’s waiting room and see a print ad featuring you and your friends standing in front of the newest casino.  Would you be shocked at any of this?  Would you be even more shocked to know that everyone involved with creating this ad, except you, will be making money off of your images?  Does this sound like a good deal?

The EFF (Electronic Frontier Foundation) has taken notice of this new policy.  “It’s asking people to agree to unspecified future commercial use of their photos.  That makes it challenging for someone to give informed consent to that deal.”  That was a statement issued by Kurt Opsahl, Senior Staff Attorney for the EFF.

Since it is unspecified what types of photos can be sold and used, the policy leaves an endless amount of possibilities.  Any type of business, hotel chains, cruise lines, airlines, bars, restaurants, etc., can purchase your Instagram photos from Facebook without asking you for consent.  Your photos can be used in brochures, television commercials, print and Internet ads…any kind of advertisement that the purchaser sees fit.  And because there is no limit on the types of photos used, your kids can be in danger.  One day, you may see a billboard of your kids running around on a beach used to advertise the kid-friendly resort you visited last summer.

If you want to avoid all this but didn’t delete your Instagram account before January 16, 2013, you can still delete your account to regain some control over your privacy.  However, keep in mind that any pictures you posted to Instagram after January 16^th up to the date your account was deleted can still be sold since there is no language in the new policy that protects those photos. 

The Promote and Share feature is the latest money making idea to come out of Facebook.  This feature allows one of your Facebook friends to promote one of your posts by sharing it on their news feed.  So if you post about a new baby, job promotion or anything else, all a friend needs to do is click on the “Promote and Share” button to get your word out.  Of course, this isn’t free “advertising”; there will be a $7 fee for each “promote and share”.  This is causing a lot of concerns about privacy because no one can opt out of this feature and anyone can Promote and Share without permission from the original poster.  Even though Facebook says this feature will work with the original poster’s privacy settings, it’s still something to worry about.

The reason Facebook came up with this new feature is because they claim there was a demand for it.  They have said that this feature is beneficial to all because it allows users to share good news posted by their friends so that this news can be moved to the top of the newsfeed.  This will allow other friends who may have missed the original post to share in the excitement of that new baby, house or job.

Facebook issued a statement as follows:  “This feature respects the privacy of the original poster – i.e. it will promote to everyone who originally saw it.  You can only promote posts to the people that your friend originally shared with.  If you have mutual friends, they’ll see that you shared it and promoted it.”  If this is the case, then why would someone pay $7 to share a post that any friend could simply scroll down to find?  Yes, this feature is beneficial, but in my opinion, it’s really only beneficial to Facebook’s pockets.

Sure, there are people who will take advantage of Promote and Share.  They realize that many friends don’t have the luxury of spending all day on Facebook and statuses do get buried way down in the newsfeeds.  With Promote and Share, they can know that more people will have a chance to see the post since it will be moved up to the top of the newsfeeds.  I don’t know why anyone would pay $7 for this, though, when all anyone has to do is scroll down to see earlier posts, or visit a friend’s wall to see if there is any new developments in their pregnancy, job search or other special event.   

SOPA (Stop Internet Piracy Act) and PIPA (Protect IP Act) are two bills that came to a vote in Congress in January 2012.  These bills were supposed to help fight copyright infringement on the Internet, but, if they passed, the government would be able to block certain websites for most Internet users.  This gave the government far too much control.

At first, there didn’t appear to be a problem and it was thought that both bills would pass in the Senate and House.  A protest staged by some popular websites showed Internet users what their Internet would look like if the bills were passed.  Sites like Wikipedia blacked out their sites for a day.  This got people to understand that giving the government full Internet control was a dangerous thing and a letter-writing campaign began.  Thousands of letters were sent to state representatives telling them to vote “No” on both of these bills.  The campaign worked and in October 2012, the bills were taken off the table.

With that threat out of the way, Internet users thought it was safe.  Then, an international treaty, the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) came up.  ISPs (Internet Service Providers) would have to “monitor and censor online communications” under ACTA.  Not only was this seen as a threat to privacy, it was also seen as threatening to our freedom of speech.  During the panel discussions on this, some of the points were leaked out to the public.  Citizens of quite a few European countries took to the streets to protest the passing of this treaty.  The protests worked.  In July, the treaty was voted against by the European Parliament and was taken off the table all over Europe in December.

During this time, lawmakers in Washington, DC didn’t give up on their plan to remove copyright infringing content from the Internet.  The Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA) and the Cybersecurity Act (CSA) were brought up.  Though both bills caused concern, the one that was considered most dangerous was CISPA.  This was because so many who were set against SOPA were now supporting CISPA.  The bill was supported because companies found that under it, they could share personal information with the government without consent and not have to worry about litigation.  Even with this support, both of these bills were taken off the table by the middle of November.

Privacy is a big concern for all of us.  Every day, we hear about new things that will force us to give up at least a part of our privacy.  One of the newer things being proposed is the installation of “black boxes” (or event data recorders) in all light trucks and new cars.

The reasoning behind this is so that investigators will be able to understand what is causing car accidents, so the information could be used to build safer automobiles.  At this time, there are no policies in place regulating how the information will be used.  This is an issue for privacy advocates, who are concerned that the information will be used for other purposes.

What consumers don’t realize is that automakers have been putting these devices into new cars for quite a few years.  If a car is involved in an accident and the airbags are deployed, sensors in the car record and save information on the last 5 to 10 seconds before the crash occurred.  The information will tell investigators the speed of the car, if the driver made any sudden turns, or even if the driver and passengers were wearing their seat belts.

A good and very public example of this happened in April 2007.  Governor Jon Corzine of New Jersey was involved in a serious car accident on the Garden State Parkway.  He was a passenger in an SUV driven by a State Trooper.  The recorder in the SUV determined that the vehicle was traveling at 91 MPH in a 65 MPH zone and that Governor Corzine was not wearing his seat belt, which is mandatory under New Jersey law.  Governor Corzine pleaded guilty to the seat belt ticket and paid the fine.

Another incident of this type involved Lt. Governor Timothy Murray of Massachusetts.  He was involved in an accident where his Ford Crown Victoria went off the road and rolled several times.  Murray walked away from that crash and told investigators that he was traveling at “around the speed limit” and was wearing his seat belt.  The black box evidence proved otherwise.  It showed that the Lt. Governor’s speed was around 101 MPH and that the seat belt was not in use.  Murray then changed his story to say that he must have “dozed off” and accelerated, but that was disputed by experts.  He was given several tickets and forced to pay over $500 in fines. 

This time each year we look forward to the holidays; the closeness with family, hot apple cider, decorating the house are all things we love.  A part of the holidays that most of us truly hate is the annual greed-fest at the malls.  People are pushing and shoving to be the first to get the latest hot toy or video game.  Television commercials are telling us that we must spend money on cars, diamonds and furs for our spouses…the more the better, according to them.  Years ago, it was a simpler time when the best present was a Tonka truck or a baby doll, but lately, the greed has taken over.  Unfortunately, scammers are feeding on this greed to steal from the holiday shoppers.

Each year, the crooks are finding new ways to scam people out of their hard-earned money.  This year, they are using cell phones as their weapon of choice.  This is a typical scam:    Random cell phone numbers are dialed and a text will be sent that appears to be from a well-known store.   This text will tell the person that they have been chosen to receive a gift card worth at least $500, and all they have to do to claim it is to verify their identity.  For verification, the person is asked for either their Social Security Number and/or the number of the credit card that was last used at the store.

Many of you reading this may be amazed that this actually works; that people are really willing to give up this information through a text.  Well, apparently there are enough people sending the information that it makes it worth the time and effort to text all those cell phones.  The scammers are hoping that an extra $500 or $1,000 will look very tempting.

You don’t text?  No problem!  The scammers are also calling unsuspecting victims and speaking to them about their “win”.  Caller-ID won’t stop them because they use pre-paid cell phones and can enter their identity as “Customer Service” of any store.  Before you know it, the scammer has your information, makes a few purchases using your credit card, then moves on to the next victim.  By the time anyone realizes they’ve been scammed, the crook has also moved on to a new pre-paid cell phone.

Don’t be so quick to give out your personal information.  If you get a call or a text telling you that you “won” something, sit back and ask yourself these two questions:

1. Did I enter a contest to win a free gift card?   If the answer is “No”, then this is a scam. If you give your information, the only “winner” will be the scammer, who will have a very happy holiday thanks to your credit card.
2. Is there any reputable business that would ask you to give sensitive, personal information to an unknown “representative” through a text or over the phone?

The answer to question 2 will always be “No”, but what about question 1?  There are contests offered by many stores.  If you did happen to enter a contest of this sort, please refer to question 2.  No reputable business will ever ask for this information over the phone.  Simply tell the person on the phone that you will visit the store location closest to your home and verify your identity in person.  Then hang up.

The age of social networking is upon us.   There are so many on-line areas where people can meet new friends and reacquaint with old ones that it’s hard to choose which one to sign up for.  That is why so many of us have accounts with several sites.  MySpace, Twitter, Tumblr, Instagram, LinkedIn and Facebook are thriving with members in the millions all over the world.  These are the places we connect professionally and personally.  They are where family and friends who live far from you can see photos of the new baby.  These sites are amazing!  But, if a child is left alone on these sites, the results can lead to disaster.

When you have young children, you teach them to never wander far from home and to never talk to strangers, yet many parents don’t warn their children about the dangers of wandering the Internet alone.  This must be done because using the Internet is a big part of any child’s life if he or she is in school.  The Internet is used for studies, but what about when the kids are done studying for the night?  Parents need to learn where the danger lies and monitor Internet use so they can teach their children how to surf the Internet responsibly.

Facebook, MySpace, Twitter and others have a minimum age for their users of 13 years old.   At 13, kids are curious, but they don’t have the maturity to make good judgments when it comes to many situations.  They feel that nothing bad can happen to them; it only happens to others.  Lately, in the news, it’s been demonstrated how tragic events can happen to innocent kids that started off as simple Internet posts.  Kids need to learn that some people they play on-line games with are strangers and should not be allowed to know about their lives.  There are many parents who feel there is no harm in allowing their child to play games like Cityville, Castleville or Farmville, but do these parents know who their children’s “neighbors” are?  Do parents realize that kids can go to the on-line gaming community to find “neighbors” from all over the world?  Every day, kids are “friending” strangers; these strangers are most likely adults.  If you warn your kids about strangers in real life, why not warn them about strangers in the virtual world?

In the 60s and 70s, parents were said to have a “live-in babysitter”…the television set.  Now, in 2012, parents no longer use the television as a babysitter; they use the computer and social networking.  There is a huge problem with this:  on-line, anyone can be what they want to be!  A 13 year old girl can claim to be 21 and an aspiring actress, a 14 year old boy can claim to be a 30 year old doctor and a 56 year old man can claim to be a 16 year old.

In the 1990s, the chat rooms of America OnLine were the place to be.  Technically, a person was supposed to be 18 years old to be able to access the adult chat areas and no one over 17 was supposed to access the “teen” areas.  Well, remember that on-line, you can be anyone you want to be.  There were teens in adult areas and adults in teen areas.   I worked with a person whose husband enjoyed “playing head games” with teenagers.  This was a 46 year old man who made two profiles:  one was a 16 year old girl and the other was a 16 year old boy.  When he went on line as the 16 year old girl, he would chat with the “other girls” about such private things as their dating habits and how they were coping with PMS.  When he went on-line as the 16 year old boy, he would try to pick up the young girls.

This man’s wife thought this was very “amusing”.   She would come to work and talk about how “clever” “Joe” was to be able to fool these kids.  What he was doing was wrong on a lot of levels, but one of the most disturbing facts of this was that this couple had a 16 year old daughter.  This is how he was able to talk to the girls about cramps and other problems of PMS; he learned from his daughter.  I once asked my co-worker how she would feel if a middle-aged man would talk to her daughter like this, she had no response.  She also had no response when I asked how she would feel if her husband got caught up in an FBI sting for pedophiles.  After a while, she stopped mentioning “Joe’s” on-line adventures.  I don’t know if he stopped or if she just realized it was not something to be proud of.

As mentioned before, social networking sites have a minimum age of 13 years old.  That does not stop the kids from lying about their ages.  In fact, many parents help their kids make profiles showing that they are 13 years old or older.  There are many kids I personally know of who are 10 or under who have their own Facebook pages.  They tell their parents that all of their friends have pages, and the parents give in.  It’s an old trick, but it still works.  The account is set up and the kids are left to explore.

All over the world, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, there are millions of people signed on to Facebook.  They are there to keep in contact with family and friends.  They also use this social networking giant to find childhood friends they haven’t seen or heard from in years.   When there is any type of celebration…a birthday party, a wedding, birth of a baby…Facebook is where the pictures and videos are posted so friends and relatives far away can be a part of it all.  There is something you need to remember:  once published, those pictures and videos are public property and can be used without your permission.

Think about the photos and videos that you or your friends have posted.  Can any of them come back to haunt you years down the line?  That picture of you at a frat party, dancing around half naked could pop up as part of an advertising campaign years later.  Imagine being a CEO of a large corporation and one day, noticing the snickers of your employees as you walk by.  Could they have just seen you at your drunken worst as a Facebook advertisement?

Facebook is now a publicly traded company.  What this means is that their main goal is to make the largest profits ever to keep their current stockholders happy and to interest new investors.  Selling of user information to third parties is one of the ways that Facebook plans on making larger profits.  Along the side of your page, there are several different advertisements, each with the comment “Like this page”.  Some even have a notation that one or more of your friends “Likes” the products or companies, which is supposed to entice you to also “Like” them.  Well, each and every “Like” is registered by Facebook, who will, in turn, place that advertisement on the pages of your friends who haven’t already “Liked” that product.  With every “Like” that you click on, hundreds of people are being targeted for that particular advertisement.  Now, multiply that by the millions of users around the world!  If the information of all these people is sold for, say, $1 each, the profits would be huge.  Then, add in all of the new Facebook users that sign up daily.

Whenever you “Like” something, you are endorsing that product or company.  You are letting your friends know that you are going to purchase the product, are interested in purchasing the product in the future, or that you are a frequent shopper at that particular store.  Soon you will see that the pop-up advertisements on the right side of your Facebook page are mostly for products or stores you “Like”. 

Obituaries are published daily in every newspaper in the United States and every day, people look through them to see if anyone they may have known recently died.  An obituary is a good way for friends of the recently deceased to know of any funeral arrangements so they could pay their respects.   It’s also a good way for identity thieves, known as “ghosters” to gather information in order to resurrect that person; or, at least that person’s identity.  Think of all the information held in one, small obituary.  The name and age of the deceased, spouse’s name, number of children and their ages, home towns of everyone and close relatives who pre-deceased them all help a ghoster to rebuild a life.  The obituary is also helpful in letting the ghoster know when those closest to the deceased will not be at home so the houses could be invaded to gather yet more information.  After all, aren’t the times of viewings and funerals listed in these obituaries?

There are many people willing to pay for new identities for a number of reasons.  An experienced ghoster will find a wide variety of potential identities by looking through many different newspapers.  No one is safe.  What if a whole family wants to begin a new life?  Identities will be needed for a man, a woman and however many children they have.  Knowing what times a house will probably be empty, the ghoster will make an unannounced visit.  Neighbors will probably also be at the viewing or funeral, so there’s a good chance the ghoster will never be seen.  Going through the house of the deceased person could turn up a birth certificate, driver’s license and Social Security card.  In fact, if the ghoster plans things out ahead of time, he could get to quite a few houses in one day, gathering information from each.  The information doesn’t have to be used immediately; the ghoster has all the time in the world to wait for the need to arise.

Any information found can be used for anything from simple credit card fraud to something as involved as taking on that person’s full identity.  If Stella Oldman needs some new furniture, but doesn’t have the money, no problem!  With the Social Security number and driver’s license in the name of Carolyn Baines, she can apply for credit and never have to pay a dime.  Or, Stella could want to escape a criminal warrant, so with a Social Security card, driver’s license and birth certificate, she can assume Carolyn’s identity and start life over as an innocent woman.