The 12 Privacy Tips of Christmas
On the first day of Christmas, the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner gave to me… 12 tips for protecting privacy. Six of the tips are for consumers and the other six for merchants. With the increased commercial activity at this season of the year, it is a good idea not to let down your guard against identity theft.
Six points for consumers:
- Ask how personal information (eg. name, address, phone number) will be used. Determine whether it will be shared with others.
- Minimize the number of identification and credit cards carried.
- Tear/shred receipts, copies of credit applications, other documentation containing personal information, don’t just throw it in the garbage.
- Do not provide a Social Insurance Number unless absolutely necessary. Ask to use other forms of identification.
- Remove mail from mailboxes as soon as possible after delivery. Follow up with creditors if bills don’t arrive on time.
- Refuse to give out personal information on the phone, through the mail or over the internet unless you have initiated the contact or you know who you’re communicating with.
Six points for merchants:
- Make protection of personal information a company priority; designate someone in your business to coordinate privacy policies and practices.
- Make your staff aware of privacy and security obligations; all employees must follow good practices in their everyday transactions with customers.
- Protect personal information in your custody - keep records under lock and key, make sure credit card slips are out of reach to the public, not beside the till. Information on your computers should be password protected with adequate safeguards.
- Reduce the amount of customer information you collect; if you don’t need certain information for a transaction, don’t collect it. For example, Social Insurance Numbers are rarely needed for retail transactions.
- Shred or securely dispose of all customer information once it is no longer needed. Make sure copies of receipts and return slips are safe.
- Obscure credit card numbers on customer receipts. Thieves are looking for receipts that contain all the information needed to misuse a credit card; name, credit card number and expiry date.
Here’s a link to a CBC article dealing with Online Identity Theft.
Technorati Tags: identity theft, Privacy, phishing, tips
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