Saturday, February 3, 2007

Private iLife

When I’m online, I think long and hard before I give out my personal information. I only shop on reputable websites, and I never save my credit card information for future use, no matter what the website is. The convenience of not having to enter my credit card information every time I make a purchase does not even come close to matching the inconvenience of having my information stolen or sold.

I have been burned before with my PayPal and eBay account, both of which were hacked. I later found out that the person had also hacked my e-mail account, and blocked me from receiving e-mails from PayPal. This made it impossible to receive notices after tried to investigate the matter with officials at PayPal.

Once again, though, it was my own desire for convenience that caused the problem. I had the same password for all three websites, and the password itself was not very secure. Since then, I have changed all three to separate, more secure passwords. I have not had another issue since then, so my efforts seem to have payed off.

I am comfortable giving my information online to reputable sites like eBay, online stores like Amazon, or my school’s website. I feel that, on the whole, these groups do all they can to prevent my information from leaking out. My basic philosophy on that front is that you can’t argue with the numbers. Millions of people use these popular websites, and the percentage of problems is low. My only incident was actually my fault.

I would not feel comfortable dealing directly with someone online to make a transaction, or dealing with a website that I have never heard of before. Whenever I purchase items online outside of eBay or a major online store, I always use the secure PayPal service, rather than using my credit card. I feel safer with that added buffer between my information and an unknown person on the other end.

The ultimate difference comes down to numbers. If I can’t see a person’s eBay feedback, or know from the size and reputation of the company that they are trustworthy, I won’t give out my personal information. I won’t give it out under any circumstances if I feel there is a significant concern, as in the case of saved credit card information.

In the long run, I may get burned again. However, it won’t happen because I haven’t taken the proper precautions.

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