WikiHow has an excellent “how-to” entry on surfing the web and communicating online anonymously. A number of options are included in the how-to: from using public proxies in your web browser to using free anonymous surfing web sites and software.

You can read the how-to on anonymous web surfing @ How to Surf the Web Anonymously With Proxies.

In what could be one of the more unusual identity theft stories that we have ever read, the Associated Press is reporting on a waitress that was handed her own driver’s license, when she carded a female patron.

From the article –

WESTLAKE, Ohio — Maybe she should have paid better attention to her server.

Last week, a waitress at the Moosehead Saloon in Westlake, Ohio, asked a woman to show proof of age after the customer ordered a drink. When the waitress looked at the ID, she realized the customer’s ID was actually her own license, police said.

The waitress, a 22-year-old Lakewood, Ohio, woman, had reported her wallet stolen from a bar on July 9. Her driver’s license and credit card were in the wallet. The credit card had already been used for $1,000 in illicit purchases, police said.

You can read the entire AP article @ Waitress Shown Own License When Asking For ID.

The August 2006 issue of Wired Magazine gives this handy tip for permanently removing deleted files from your PC so that they can not be recovered by another person with file-recovery software.

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You do know that file-recovery software can resurrect everything you just emptied out of your Trash or Recycle Bin, right? It may look as if you’ve removed them from the hard drive, but the 1s and 0s of the so-called deleted files still exist. The only sure way to permanently erase sensitive material is to overwrite the disk space with new data.

PC

Go to www.heidi.ie/eraser/download.php and download the free Eraser app, which uses a process rigorous enough to meet Pentagon standards.

Mac

Overwriting is easier on a Mac. (What isn’t?) Choose “Secure Empty Trash” from the Finder menu and the skeletons in your hard drive are toast.

In a recent Wired News article a designer of license plate reading ( LPR ) equipment for police officers and law enforcement officials to scan and track vehicles by license number says the technology will soon move into the private sector, where everyday citizens will be able to purchase this LPR technology and use it to track other people.

From the article –

Jealous lovers may soon have an alternative to sniffing for perfume to catch a cheating mate: Just follow their license plate.

In recent years, police around the country have started to use powerful infrared cameras to read plates and catch carjackers and ticket scofflaws. But the technology will soon migrate into the private sector, and morph into a tool for tracking individual motorists’ movements, says former policeman Andy Bucholz, who’s on the board of Virginia-based G2 Tactics, a manufacturer of the technology.

Bucholz, who designed some of the first mobile license plate reading, or LPR, equipment, gave a presentation at the 2006 National Institute of Justice conference here last week laying out a vision of the future in which LPR does everything from helping insurance companies find missing cars to letting retail chains chart customer migrations. It could also let a nosy citizen with enough cash find out if the mayor is having an affair, he says.

Giant data-tracking firms such as ChoicePoint, Accurint and Acxiom already collect detailed personal and financial information on millions of Americans. Once they discover how lucrative it is to know where a person goes between the supermarket, for example, and the strip club, the LPR industry could explode, says Bucholz.

Private detectives would want the information. So would repo men or bail bondsmen. And the government, which often contracts out personal data collection — in part, so it doesn’t have to deal with Freedom of Information Act requests — might encourage it.

“I know it sounds really Big Brother,” Bucholz says. “But it’s going to happen. It’s going to get cheaper and cheaper until they slap them up on every taxicab and delivery truck and track where people live.” And work. And sleep. And move.

You can read the entire article @ License Plate Tracking for All.

According to a July 19 article in TechWeb Technology News, AT&T has agreed to pay a $550,000 settlement on behalf of recently acquired SBC to end an investigation into third-party access to customer telephone records.

The article is reprinted below –

AT&T will pay a $550,000 settlement to end an investigation into third-party access to information about customers’ telephone calls.

The company recently agreed to pay the money on behalf of recently-acquired SBC. Both companies cooperated with the enforcement bureau of the Federal Communications Commission during an investigation into whether customer confidentiality was breached. The payment, due within 30 days, does not constitute an admission of wrongdoing, according to language in the agreement.

The company agreed to supervision and review of its opt-out processes for releasing proprietary customer network information (CPNI). The company also agreed to monitor customer complaints and identify violations of the FCC’s opt-out rules.

The Electronic Privacy Information Center prompted the investigation when it submitted a petition to the FCC in August 2005. EPIC argued for strengthened security and authentication standards for accessing customer phone records, including call histories, subscribers’ unlisted phone numbers and other personal information obtained by online information brokers.

In the petition, EPIC pointed out that online brokers advertise their ability to obtain the information without account holders’ knowledge and consent, that the information is gained in hours (indicating it could not have been obtained legally) and that carriers aren’t careful enough about validating the identity of the person requesting the information. EPIC suggested that carriers were not doing their part to prevent pretexting, the practice of assuming an identity to obtain personal information from an account holder.

USA Today has published a lengthy and informative article on the tactics and personal privacy problems associated with “data mining” - the growing practice used by both government and business of using modern technology and software to create detailed personal profiles of citizens and consumers by recording their behavior and saving it for analysis in databases.

From the article -

When customers sign up for a free Hotmail e-mail account from Microsoft, they’re required to submit their name, age, gender and ZIP code.

But that’s not all the software giant knows about them.

Microsoft takes notice of what time of day they access their inboxes. And it goes to the trouble of finding out how much money folks in their neighborhood earn.

Why? It knows a florist will pay a premium to have a coupon for roses reach males 30-40, earning good wages, who check their e-mail during lunch hour on Valentine’s Day.

Microsoft is one of many companies collecting and aggregating data in new ways so sophisticated that many customers may not even realize they’re being watched.

These businesses are using new software tools that can record every move a person makes online and combine that information with other data. Brick-and-mortar stores, afraid of being left behind, are ramping up data collection and processing efforts, too, says JupiterResearch analyst Patti Freeman Evans.

The result: Corporate America is creating increasingly detailed portraits of each consumer, whether they’re aware of it or not.

Companies say they can be trusted to do so responsibly. Yahoo, for instance, has a strict ban on selling data from its customer registration lists. And Microsoft says it won’t purchase an individual’s income history — just the average income from his or her ZIP code. “We’re making sure there’s a very bright line in the sand,” says spokesman Joe Doran.

Some consumers aren’t reassured. Salt Lake City lighting designer Jody Good, 54, goes to great lengths to control his personal information, including signing up for some services with false names and keeping unusually tight security settings on his PC. “I’m trying to preserve my privacy,” he says.

You can read the entire USA Today article @ Data miners dig a little deeper.

USA Today has published an interesting article on the reality of pervasive digital cameras in our modern lives, including the privacy problems they are creating.

From the article –

Traffic cameras zoom in enough to capture your dangling cigarette. Crime cameras “see” in the dark. Satellite images show whether your car is in the driveway. Most Americans realize ubiquitous monitoring is the price of living in a high-tech world.

These days, surveillance cameras aren’t just mounted on buildings and satellites, controlled by government and businesses. Now they’re carried by a nation obsessed with its own image.

Kids snap cellphone pictures at parties and instantly put them on the Web; fans who nab photos of unsuspecting celebrities share them on celebrity-watch sites. The guy in the car next to you is leaning out of his window, taking a video that he later uploads to a video site where it could be seen by dozens or hundreds of people — maybe even millions.

“Our computers are about to become unblinking paparazzi,” says Paul Saffo of the Institute for the Future in Menlo Park, Calif. “And we’re all going to feel a little bit like Brad and Angelina.”

Thanks to the availability of cheap digital cameras and websites that simplify photo-sharing, Americans have a new favorite pastime: creating their own reality shows, featuring themselves — and anyone else they see along the way.

While many, especially young people, think it’s all fun, privacy watchers are eyeing the new trend, trying to gauge just how it will affect us legally and shape us socially.

“We’re going to be a society where tons and tons of photographs and information about us are available online without our consent,” says Jason Schultz, staff attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a privacy and civil liberties advocacy group that focuses on computers and digital technology.

You can read the entire USA Today article @ Always in the camera’s eye.

As this article from marketwatch.com shows, identity theft isn’t just for individuals anymore; businesses too can be the victim of identity theft and fraud.

From the article —

If you have your own business and you think it’s a victim of identity theft, good luck. Many consumer protections, available to credit-card identity-theft victims, don’t apply to businesses. Nor, experts say, do local police typically investigate business identity theft. You may not always get help from a credit issuer either.

If, however, a business identity theft shows up on a consumer credit report, as it might with a sole proprietor, consumer protections do apply. Visit www.consumer.gov/idtheft for more information. See the Web site.

But we got little help when our business received an American Express solicitation, addressed to a company that the NASD had expelled from the securities industry. That company, Salomon Grey Financial Corp., also was the subject of a June 1 Securities and Exchange Commission order revoking its broker-dealer registration in conjunction with market manipulation. Plus, it was the subject of a federal court fraud injunction.
Needless to say, we became alarmed.

Business identity-theft complaints have been growing steadily since November, says Jay Foley, executive director of the not-for-profit Identity Theft Resource Center in San Diego. Often, they are from mom-and-pop businesses starting to conduct business on the Internet.
“They get ugly,” Foley said. “The business has to fight off people who want to collect for these accounts.”

Little reliable data on business identity theft exist, experts say, due to the different ways it is reported. Banks find it difficult to tell whether a small business problem is fraud, or related to the company going out of business. Police categorize it as “fraud” rather than “identity theft.” The federal identity theft criminal definition does not cover businesses.

Fraudsters, though, easily can get business information through secretary of state offices and the D&B Business Directory.

You can read the entire article @ Bad company - What happens if your business identity is stolen?.

A recent Business Week article discusses how hackers, online phishers and indentity thieves are focusing more on psychology than technology to steal your personal information.

From the article –

Computer-based fraudsters are finding new ways to trick people — not technology — to get the information they seek

“Lawsuit against you,” reads the subject line in an e-mail that hit thousands of in-boxes around the world last month. In flawless legalese, the message warns recipients that they recently sent an unsolicited fax to the sender’s office. Citing U.S. civil code, its prohibition on sending junk faxes, and an actual $11 million settlement by restaurant chain Hooters, the missive threatens a lawsuit over the alleged junk fax.

“If you do not pay me $500 by the deadline for payment, I intend to sue you for violating the Telephone Consumer Protection Act,” it reads. “If you force me to sue, I will not settle for less than $1,000.” Details of the alleged lawsuit are contained in the document attached to the e-mail.

In today’s litigious — and digital — society, being notified of a lawsuit via e-mail might not seem too unusual, right? Gotcha! The e-mail is a scam that preys on deep-seated fears of being hauled into court. Its target: unlucky recipients who may indeed be among thousands of companies that send junk faxes.

You can read the entire article @ Phisher Kings Court Your Trust.

Sprint Nextel have filed a federal lawsuit against a Florida-base private investigation firm that allegedly used unlawful practices to obtain confidential cell phone records of subscribers.

From a recent article in the St. Petersburg Times —

Sprint Nextel has filed a federal lawsuit against a private investigation firm in St. Petersburg, claiming it stole confidential cell phone subscriber information by posing as customers and employees.

The civil suit, filed Friday in Tampa, alleges that San Marco and Associates Private Investigation Inc. illegally obtained customer cell phone numbers and other information, then sold it to third parties. The cell phone provider wants a judge to order the firm to stop.

Jennifer Walsh, a spokeswoman for Sprint Nextel, said it was unclear how long the St. Petersburg firm had been allegedly stealing customer information.

“That’s part of the purpose of the suit,” Walsh said. “What’s behind the suit is the extreme concern we have about privacy and maintaining our customer privacy.”

San Marco and Associates advertised its services to other business through faxes and fliers handed out at trade shows and distributed on the Internet, according to the federal complaint. The firm charged $75 for providing the cell phone records, the court documents said.

Virginia-based Sprint Nextel provides training to customer service representatives to prevent information thefts like the ones San Marco is accused of. Sprint Nextel employees generally follow a verification process before giving information to a caller.

But the lawsuit says that on several occasions, the private investigation firm managed to get around the verification process. San Marco and Associates sometimes posed as employees of Sprint Nextel or customers to get information, the complaint said. Walsh would not elaborate on how the firm was able to get around Sprint Nextel’s verification process.

For more information, you can read the entire article @ Sprint Nextel sues private investigator.