Avoiding the cybersnoops

The old saying that if you’ve nothing to hide, you’ve nothing to fear no longer holds true – at least in cyberspace.

Where’s the problem in letting the world know you exist and what you do with your time on the web?

After all, it’s not as though you’re disclosing your bank or credit card details, is it?

But innocent pieces of personal information and opinions posted on the web can help to profile you, your family and friends – possibly even helping someone to chart your whereabouts, take your identity or steal from you.

But it’s not just potential stalkers, fraudsters and burglars who pose a threat. If your employers were to Google your name and discover what you think about the world, would they accept your forthright and considered views or label you a malcontent? And as governments begin to realise the potential for legal data gathering that the web presents, many law-abiding citizens have decided that enough is enough.

The lights are going out all over cyberspace as worried individuals try to remove personal details from public view. But is it possible to return to a state of true online anonymity?

Vast sources of personal information exist on the web. Being public, they’re all free, and access is legal. Best of all, they’re usually self-correcting too. And they’re just waiting to be exploited by criminals, scam merchants or even nosey neighbours. But what are these sources, and how can you ensure you’re not at risk?

Meet the family
Even something as innocuous as a family homepage can be the start of identity theft. Homepages with your own domain name are a cheap and effective way to tell friends and family what you’re up to, but they’re also accessible to everybody else.

Type ‘family homepage’ into a search engine, and you can sift through page after page of the most intimate details of the lives of others. There are pictures, interests, and in some cases even dates of birth. At first sight, such information may seem innocuous enough, but to a fraudster, details such as birthdays can be very useful indeed.

One reason is that many family homepages also carry extensively researched genealogical information. By including the maiden names of female family members, you could inadvertently be giving away the answer to an age-old security question. Coupled with a date of birth, an address and a suitable approach, the fraud potential quickly becomes clear.

The only question is how to get a street address when all you have is the URL of a homepage. But for a fraudster, this is sometimes a small matter.

Sites such as www.who.is can provide details of who has registered a domain name. For billing purposes, the address and contact details returned should be real. Sometimes, domain registration happens through the company hosting your web space, meaning that the address becomes the company’s address.

In the main, however, the names and addresses (and even the telephone number) of the person who registered the domain are there for all to see. A quick phone call from a phisher asking you to confirm your bank details might be all it takes to empty your account.

Because of this, it’s a very good idea to limit the information you supply when registering a domain (for non-commercial personal sites you can opt for your details to be hidden from Whois searches), and to rent a PO box from the Royal Mail so that the trail ends there. But there are plenty of other places in cyberspace where people willingly give out too much personal information.