12) Cell phone privacy As on the Web, marketers (and sometimes government agencies) are eager to collect information about us by tracking how and where we use our increasingly powerful mobile devices. They'd like to gather demographic and behavioral clues from our use of the Web and zoom ...

by Riva Richmond on May 14th 2009 2:14PM

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11) Risks at work Your privacy rights are largely checked at the door when you enter your workplace -- where the rooms and computer systems don't belong to you. Employers are conducting background checks, looking at your Facebook page, and watching you pretty much everywhere but the bathroom. ...

by Riva Richmond on May 14th 2009 2:14PM

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7) Cloud computing Many of us use Web-based e-mail, instant messenging, and document services like Google Docs from companies that store our data far away in the Internet "cloud." The convenience is fantastic. We can get our messages and files from any computer anywhere and worry not a whit ...

by Riva Richmond on May 14th 2009 2:14PM

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2) Malware and spyware Another way fraudsters collect your sensitive personal information is by planting malicious programs onto your computer. In the old days, they spread viruses through e-mail. Today, the method of choice is to use malicious Web sites to quietly download programs through ...

by Riva Richmond on May 14th 2009 2:14PM

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1) "Phishing" for your private information Cybercriminals are working hard to gather financial-account details and passwords, Social Security Numbers and, frankly, anything useful for stealing your identity and defrauding you. Often, their strategy is simply to trick you into handing it ...

by Riva Richmond on May 14th 2009 2:14PM

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10) Loyalty Cards from Retail Stores Many of us carry little cards on our keychains with bar codes or magnetic stripes that get us discounts on cereal and soup. But did you know that grocery stores use the cards to collect vast amounts of data about your purchasing habits? Grocery and drug ...

by Riva Richmond on May 14th 2009 2:13PM

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9) Public Wi-Fi Blossoming wireless hotspots in cafés, airports, and hotels make toting a laptop more useful than ever. But, a public Wi-Fi connection could open the door for a hacker to pilfer your personal data. To keep them out, make sure you have an operating firewall -- newer ...

by Riva Richmond on May 14th 2009 2:13PM

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8) Electronic medical data The digital revolution is coming to medical data. Hospitals, doctors offices, pharmacies, and insurance companies are moving toward electronic records. Web-based services like Google Health and Microsoft's HealthVault have sprouted. Digital files may be a boon for ...

by Riva Richmond on May 14th 2009 2:13PM

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6) Targeted advertising and cookies In order to show us ads that are more likely to produce a sale, marketers eagerly collect all sorts of personal data about us, from demographic information like sex, age, and location to evidence of our interests and online activities. These companies gather ...

by Riva Richmond on May 14th 2009 2:13PM

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5) Histories of Your Web Use Where we go on the Web and what we type into search engines like Google, Yahoo, MSN and AOL can be very revealing. These activities could point to where your child goes to school, where you bank, what diseases you have, not to mention your sexual orientation, ...

by Riva Richmond on May 14th 2009 2:13PM

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