It seems like every week we hear the news of some company’s massive data leak and lost credit card numbers. Also why do they always imagine hackers wearing hoodies. Chances are you or someone close to you has been caught up in one of these leaks. You need to be thinking about your privacy and data security on any device.
It wasn’t that long ago that Equifax was hit with a large breach affecting One Hundred and Forty Seven MILLION people. If you were concerned about the breach you could go check to see if you were affected on a website they had set up. That is if you didn’t get sent a bogus link by Equifax and even the real one gave a random answer.
The good news is that you can pretty easily protect yourself from this for not too much money. Go to each of the three credit reporting companies and freeze your credit. The three companies are Equifax, Experian, and Transunion. Go to their websites and initiate a freeze, it will cost some dollars. When I did it in 2017 it cost me around fifty dollars to do all three and less than an hour of my time.
What happens after you freeze it you wonder. Well a line of credit can not be opened in your name. Credit checks will be kicked back quickly. When you do need credit you go back and do a temporary unfreeze for a length of time you determine. I have had mine frozen for three years now and it has stopped me from buying cars I don’t need. Seriously though it will take you like fifteen minutes to unfreeze them.
The next thing you can do to protect yourself is to thoroughly go through your credit report. The best and only way you should do this is through the Federal Trade Commission’s website. Look for anything unusual and make disputes, the companies have to respond. They have a pretty good FAQ too.
The last thing you need to do is to be prepared to have anything you put online, or have on a device connected to the internet, get stolen. There is not much liability for companies losing your data. Equifax’s stock price dropped pretty hard after the news came out but it is now worth more than before the hack. Sure they had to pay out some money in a settlement, but you know I haven’t seen my check come in the mail yet.
Always be cautious where you put your information. No matter how bad a company drops the ball it is ultimately you who will pay the price. Therefore you are ultimately responsible for your own data and privacy. Also, turn off geolocation on your smartphone camera everyone knows exactly where you took that photo.
Popeye The Deadlift Man 