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Unit 14: Taking Protected Measures

As mentioned above, reputable retailers spell out how they use your information in their privacy Notes
policies. Check to see if your favorites sell your information to other merchants. If so, then see if
you can opt-out of offers from third parties.

Consider connecting to the Internet through a VPN or private proxy, which will obscure your
IP address and therefore your location. This is only effective when you’re browsing--once you
decide to buy, your identity will be exposed.

Finally, if you’re really paranoid, shop at a variety of sites to limit the depth of knowledge about
you that any one retailer can acquire. This has its risks, however; buying from that guy on 33rd
Street just to avoid shopping too often at Nordstroms is counterproductive.

14.3 Protect Your Privacy

14.3.1 Avoid Identity Theft
When you’re buying online, it can sometimes be hard to tell whether you’re dealing with a
legitimate merchant or the online equivalent of that guy selling counterfeit watches on 33rd Street.
Most shoppers focus on maintaining the privacy of their credit card data, and that’s good. But
that’s not the only privacy concern you should have while shopping online.
14.3.2 Identity Theft

The risk: Any time you use your credit card online, your identity is at risk. Organized crime
factions from all over the world have streamlined the process of extracting your personal details
from all sorts of places, especially shopping sites. These attackers can harvest thousands or even
millions of credit cards in one fell swoop. That’s a problem for two reasons.
First, and most obviously, there’s the problem of having your credit card used to purchase all
kinds of goods in places you’ve never been. Usually your bank protects you from such fraudulent
charges. But it’s still a hassle to change your account numbers.
But these days, the bad guys aren’t satisfied with credit cards alone. In fact, individual card
numbers aren’t worth that much. But when those numbers are combined with other commonly
available bits of personal information—such as addresses and birthdays—attackers can then
assemble a virtual dossier of your private information. Identity thieves can parlay that information
to secure credit in your name. That credit can be more valuable to them than your credit card
and far more difficult and expensive for you to fix: Bank protections focus on credit cards. They
are much less help when money is directly extracted from accounts, via debit cards or electronic
fund transfers.
14.3.3 Spying

The risk: It may be convenient when your favorite online merchants e-mail offers for products
you were thinking about buying. But wait—how did they know that? Unfortunately, if you’ve
been using Google to browse pages for similar products, or perusing the merchant’s Website,
it’s not a secret. You’ve been telling them what you like to buy and when—they’re just listening.

With the advent of tracking technologies and sophisticated analytics, many Web merchants
know exactly who you are and what you are most likely to buy. They know because you tell
them through your buying and surfing patterns. This is valuable data, and merchants can (and
do) sell it to each other.

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