How Else Will Your Privacy Be Taken?

In the article Looking for a Job?  Beware of this Privacy Risk, you learned how looking for work could lead to a breach in your privacy.  This is a risk for only those who are currently looking for a job.  There is another privacy risk that should be a concern to everyone, regardless of age or state of employment.  Employers and schools are demanding to know your social media information.

Many companies do not want their names mentioned in social media unless they have control over what is being said.  The only way these companies have to keep control over this is by checking each employee’s social media accounts to make sure nothing derogatory is being said about the company.  Because anyone can set privacy controls, the only way to know everything that an employee says on social media is to have full access to the accounts.  That is why employers are asking for the log-in names and passwords of all employees. 

 

Employers are not only looking for what is said about the company, or if the employee has the company name listed as their place of employment, they are also looking for anything inappropriate that may be posted.  Pictures of wild parties or visits to a nude beach may just get you fired.  True, these parties and beach pictures were taken on your leisure time, but now, unless you have a contract, you are considered an “at will” employee.  This means that your employer can terminate your employment for any reason.  Even if you have a contract, most of them have a morals clause, so any inappropriate postings could void the contract.

Make Sure Your Password is Secure

Just about every day, there’s an article in the newspaper or a story on the news that talks about cyber-crime, usually in the form of identity theft.  Most Internet users feel that they are safe because they are “cautious”; they never download from strange websites, nor do they open an e-mail unless they know who sent it.  The problem is that these “cautious” people forget one of the most important aspects to keeping their privacy safe:  the password.  Maybe laziness or forgetfulness is the reasoning, but in this World Wide Web full of hackers, many thousands of people are still using the same password for everything they do online.  Some may argue that each password is “different”; however, having variations of the password “ABCD1234” doesn’t count as being different.   If you or someone you know is guilty of this way of thinking, you should really read on.

  

One of the first lines of our privacy defense is the password.  Whenever you sign up to become a member of a website, you need to enter a log-in name and a password.  Most sites will not accept passwords shorter than 8 characters and many require them to be alpha-numeric and case sensitive.  If you choose the password “platypus1”, you will not be granted access into that site if you mistakenly type in “Platypus1” on your next visit.  The password must be an exact match.  So, if you are a registered user on 10 different sites, you need 10 unique passwords.  “Platypus1”, “Platypus2”, “Platypus3”, etc. just won’t cut it. 

In order to try to make each password unique, many people will use different names combined with birthdates.  It’s not uncommon for a man to have “Pamela823” (his wife and her birth date, August 23) for one site, then choose “Henry312” (his son and his birth date, March 12) for another site.  A problem could arise, however, if that man signs on to Facebook using a public hotspot and is hacked.   Once the hacker knows the Facebook password, he could look to see the names and birthdates of the spouse and children.  So, if the Facebook password is “Pamela823”, this hacker will try that same password for an email account.  If that doesn’t work, he’ll look to see the son’s name and try “Henry312”.  Hackers are very good at what they do, so before you know it, this cyber-crook is going through your bank account.

There is a corporation in Virginia called Siber Systems, Inc., that realized how difficult it is for many people to come up with unique passwords.  With this in mind, in 1999 they developed RoboForm, their first product with consumers in mind.  It now has worldwide users numbering in the millions.  Demand was so great that RoboForm is now available in 30 languages.

RoboForm takes your information and each time you register for a site, it comes up with a unique username and password.  You don’t have to do a thing.  The only password you need to remember is the master password from when you first used it.  So, you log on to your computer, enter your master password into RoboForm and RoboForm goes to work for you after that.  It not only generates unique passwords, it remembers them for you.  Another plus is that each password is encrypted, making it almost impossible to be hacked.

Due to the success of the original RoboForm, in 2004, Siber Systems expanded its product line with RoboForm2Go.  This portable version of RoboForm is on a USB flash drive that you plug into your computer.  No matter where you travel, you will have RoboForm2Go with you.  Not only that, it will work in your native language.

RoboForm is the perfect solution for creating unique passwords and then remembering what they are for each site that you visit.  It is a great tool for keeping you safe when you surf the Net.

To add even more protection to your Internet surfing, you should use a proxy server from a reputable company.  Please take the time to visit Privacy Partners and take advantage of the FREE trial offer.  You will be glad you did once you see how safe you feel knowing that you can surf the Internet from anywhere knowing that every time you connect, your information is encrypted.