ARTS & FARCES internet

What can we, as American citizens, do to maintain a modicum of control over—and privacy in—our work and personal lives? We can begin by applying the following real life tips and information. When you find or develop more of your own, be sure to share them with me.

1. Giving your social security number to anyone, unless it is absolutely required, is reckless. When you have doubts about providing your social security number, ask the inquirer to be specific about the need for the information. Also ask what other agencies or businesses the information will be shared with, and with whom the information might be shared in the future. Government benefits cannot be denied for refusal to provide a social security number. Some states still use your social security number as your drivers license number. This is unconscionable, but you don’t have much choice if you want to drive.
2. With any request for information, decide whether or not you are prepared to release that information to every individual, organization, or business that has contact with the inquirer. That universe of “networking” is much bigger than any of us could ever imagine.
3. Your credit card is at less risk for abuse when you use it to make purchases on-line than when your waiter disappears with it in your favorite restaurant. Which do you think is easier—capturing a valid credit card number from a diner or decoding an encrypted on-line transaction? While you might want to make a point of retrieving your credit card as quickly as possible in restaurants you do not frequent regularly, you do not need to be afraid of transacting business on-line. Hopefully, restaurants and waiters will also become more sensitive to this fact and provide “quick” check out solutions for their clientele while protecting patron’s cards.
4. Consumers are not obligated to disclose their zip code or telephone number when making a purchase with a credit card.
5. Cookie technology enables your Web browser software to create a record of the Web sites you visit, as well as the specific pages you click through (access) at each site—called the “clickstream.” Cookies can be used for malevolent purposes, such as surreptitiously surveilling your browsing habits in order to construct a digital dossier on your interests without your knowledge or consent. But cookies can also be used to make your Web browsing experience more efficient, such as maintaining login identification and password information. ARTS & FARCES internet (the ARTS & FARCES Web site), for example, uses cookies to maintain the contents of your shopping basket during an ecommerce session. At the end of the session, however, the cookie expires. Reputable Web sites state specifically what they use cookie technology for and usually publish an explicit privacy policy. Current versions of Web browser software allow you to refuse cookies on a site-by-site basis. Use this feature to refuse cookies from any site that doesn’t clearly state its policies.
6. Ask your political representatives to strengthen the Telephone Consumer Protection Act of 1991 to curb excessive telemarketing calls. Telemarketing calls are too easily abused to procure information regarding your household by stealthy individuals, businesses, and even criminals.
7. Teach your young children to use the telephone responsibly. It’s alarming how many children use the telephone as a toy, dialing random numbers in an attempt to emulate adult behavior. Dialing random numbers can be dangerous for children. Teach your children very early (they will learn best by your example) to immediately identify themselves when placing a call and to expect incoming callers to do the same. This is simple telephone etiquette, yet it is surprising to observe the number of otherwise well-mannered individuals and professionals who fail to exercise this simple courtesy.
8. Try to determine the true purpose of all telemarketing calls. If you are not immediately aware of the caller’s purpose, by all means interrupt to inquire (it is your time a caller is spending, after all). Are the questions being asked true to that purpose? If not, politely—but firmly—end the call.
9. Be aware of the manner in which you answer your telephone. It’s entirely appropriate to answer anonymous requests such as “what number is this?” with a simple, “what number did you dial, please?”
10. The telephone book lists your street address. The county registrar of deeds holds the assessed valuation and the amount of tax on the property for that address—and it is public information. Determine whether it’s in your interest to use a P.O. Box rather than your residential address for your telephone listing, newspaper and magazine subscriptions, mail order purchases, automobile registrations, and the like.
11. Consider modifying the spelling of your name on each subscription you hold. Your initials, formal name, informal versions, etc. are all valid. This strategy allows you to tell at a glance who is selling or renting your personal information to third parties without your consent.
12. If you have a complaint about the handling of your records by a financial institution, contact the appropriate regulatory agency:
• Banks are regulated by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), Consumer Affairs Division, 550 17th Street N.W., Washington, DC 20429.
• Savings and loans are regulated by the Federal Home Loan Bank Board, Office of Community Investment, 1700 G Street N.W., Washington, DC 20552.
• Credit unions are regulated by the Federal Credit Union Association (FCUA), and letters should be addressed to the National Credit Union Association (NCUA), Department of Supervision and Examination, 1776 G Street N.W., Washington, DC 20456.
13. Applications for insurance sometimes require individuals to sign an authorization statement that allows the insurer to obtain information from virtually any source. Privacy experts refer to this as a search warrant without due process. Many of these authorization statements do not specify limits on the scope of the investigation or the information sources employed. Even more disturbing, many of these authorization statements do not specify an expiration date. It is obviously in everyone’s best interest to help prevent fraudulent insurance claims. Nevertheless, limits to such searches should be explicit and stated. When asked to sign such an authorization statement, strike out statements that permit unlimited access to and dissemination of information unrelated to the service sought. Also make sure that an expiration date is specified.
14. If you have been denied credit, the creditor is required to disclose the nature of the information on which it based its decision. If the denial was because of a report from a credit bureau or credit reporting agency, the creditor must supply the name and address of the credit bureau or reporting agency. Upon receipt of a written request, the reporting agency must supply you with the nature and substance of all information (except medical information) about you in its file. The reporting agency must also supply you with the sources of its information and all recent recipients of the credit report. If you challenge the report, the credit bureau must reinvestigate and eliminate any information that cannot be confirmed. Unfortunately, there are all too many reports of this simply not being the case. The Fair Credit Reporting Act prohibits the reporting of adverse information that is more than seven years old. If you are still not satisfied, write a statement of less than one hundred words to be included in your report.
15. If you have been improperly billed for a credit transaction, contact the creditor as soon as possible in writing. The creditor must acknowledge your letter unless the error has already been corrected. After receipt of your letter, the creditor has ninety days to either correct the error or explain why it believes the billing to be correct. Once the creditor has received your letter, it cannot try to collect any amount questioned, and it cannot report you as delinquent.
16. Periodically review copies of your medical records and insist on the deletion of anything not directly related to health care or anything that might be misconstrued. This is especially important if your employer subscribes to a managed-care plan. In most of these cases, you must sign a release form that allows your health care provider to divulge your information to anyone within the managed care or your employer’s organizations. You might also inquire of your physician whether or not any information in your files has been forwarded to the Medical Information Bureau. Physicians are required to file certain information with this bureau but the majority of the population seems largely unaware of its very existence.
17. If you suspect your mail has been opened, contact the postmaster general and the attorney general in your state. A search warrant must be obtained in order for domestic, first-class mail to be opened and a court order is required to detain mail. It’s a crime for anyone to open or destroy mail which is not addressed to him or her.
18. Obtain copies of all records about you held by the federal government by writing to each agency you think may have information about you, citing the Privacy Act of 1974. Make each request as specific as you can. If you are required to pay a fee for this service, it must be limited to the actual costs of search and duplication. If you are denied access, you can file a civil action against the agency. You can also request to make an amendment to any record that concerns you. Submit the request to the appropriate agency in writing. If the agency refuses your request, it must inform you of the procedures for an administrative appeal. Finally, if your request under the Privacy Act is unsuccessful, request the records under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). Exemptions for disclosure are different under the FOIA, so your request may be successful in certain cases.
• The United States Government Manual lists all federal agencies and their functions. It is available in most libraries or can be purchased directly from the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, DC 20402.
19. Obtain copies of all records about you held by the state governments of any states in which you have resided. Ten states—Arkansas, California, Connecticut, Indiana, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New York, Ohio, Utah, and Virginia—have Fair Information Practice laws on the books that mirror the federal Privacy Act of 1974 on the state level. If your state doesn’t have specific privacy laws, contact your state’s attorney general and ask what information is available to you under the state’s public records laws. You might also ask if this information is shared with other agencies, and if so, which ones.
20. Ask to see and to copy your records from any private sector organization that keeps a file on you. Try to correct information that is inaccurate.
21. The Fourth Amendment offers protection from unreasonable searches and seizures. Be careful not to inadvertently waive this protection by voluntarily opening your premises to intruders.