Discussion Participation Scoring Guide.Resources
There are many abuses of privacy that are occurring in the absence of ethical and moral restraint in a society that is becoming dominated by the explosion of growth and innovation in the world of information technology. However, the goal of this paper is to alert, inform, and prepare you on how you can best go about protecting your privacy, and that of others. Specifically, the paper describes privacy issues with electronic mail, as well as how you can protect yourself against unsolicited phone calls.
Phishing is a tag-team deception employed by scam and con artists that blasts fraudulent, official-looking emails (Bank of America, Chase, PayPal, eBay, etc.) to thousands of recipients that fool the victim to correct some issue with their account - by clicking the embedded hypertext link to their fraudulent, but official-looking websites. The appearance of authenticity is sometimes award-winning, if there were such a crazy distinction. Some of them are such good counterfeits, that I collect them in a mailbox to share with others how careful they must be to protect themselves from these cons.
The result of visiting one of these bogus websites is that the unsuspecting victim inputs the username and password that allows the con artist to immediately gain access to the real site, as well as the IP address from which you came. These sites may also harvest IP addresses and MAC addresses (Ethernet ID) - by scanning the visitor machine and/or infecting it with malware, spyware, or a virus that allows the perpetrator of the bogus site to "boot" you computer off the Internet long enough to assume your computer's IP address and/or MAC address.
This process, known as "IP Spoofing" and "MAC Address Spoofing", or "MAC Spoofing" allows the perpetrator to mask their real IP address by "impersonating" yours - matching the records maintained by your own ISP - SCARY! This allows the "perp" to assume your identity to deflect detection from themselves while they empty out your financial accounts and wreak havoc on your real identity.
When you send email to more than one person, consider sending it addressed to yourself in the "To:" field, then adding all recipients to the "Bcc:" field to respect everyone's privacy.
To: Send to yourself
Cc: Don't place recipients here unless you know they don't mind you revealing their email address to potential unknown abuse by others.
Bcc: Place all recipients here from now on!
Additionally, before "forwarding" a message on to others, take the time to remove the header and email addresses visible within any message, as viruses can harvest addresses from email on an infected users computer. If you feel compelled to follow the prescribed ritual of an electronic "chain mail" message, place the addresses of the victims you wish to send the message in the "BCC:" field.
When it comes to interruptions from the home phone, you can easily protect your privacy from unsolicited callers by registering for the National "Don Not Call List". However, YOU must enforce it, which means you must review the laws that prescribe for monetary damages to you from solicitors that fail to respect that list. That means assertively controlling the tempo and direction of the call, asking the right questions if you happen to answer the phone from such an "unidentified caller", documenting the responses to your questions, the date and time of call, and all other pertinent information (including recording of the call, if done with proper consent).
Using an automated call management solution, like Phone Valet by Parliant Corporation, you can create a customer "unidentified caller" rule set that might go like this:
Unless we all agree to implement the simplest of privacy rules - to ask our permission and require "Opt-In" instead of forcing us to chase our private information - like chickens loose from the coop - then privacy will continue to face assaults from new technology.
Watrous, D. (2007, February 8). BCC for privacy! Retrieved August 16, 2007, from: http://www.cs.rutgers.edu/~watrous/bcc-for-privacy.html
McDowell, M., Householder, A. (2004). US-CERT cyber security tip ST04-008 -- benefits of bcc. Retrieved August 16, 2007, from The United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team (US-CERT) main website at: http://www.us-cert.gov/
PhoneValet Message Center. (2007). Retrieved August 17, 2007, from Parliant Corporation website at: http://www.parliant.com/phonevalet/
US CODE/ Title 47,227. (n.d.). Restrictions on use of telephone equipment. Retrieved August 16, 2007, from: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/html/uscode47/usc_sec_47_00000227----000-.html
Electronic Privacy Information Center. (2006). Telemarketing and the TCPA. Retrieved August 16, 2007, from: http://www.epic.org/privacy/telemarketing/
JunkBusters.com. (2005). How to protect your privacy from commercial invasions. In JUNKBUSTERS Privacy Headlines. Retrieved August 16, 2007, from: http://www.junkbusters.com/junkdata.html
JunkBusters.com. (2005). Telemarketers always use a script: why shouldn't you? In JUNKBUSTERS Anti-Telemarketing Script. Retrieved August 16, 2007, from: http://www.junkbusters.com/ht/en/script.html
Federal Trade Commission. (2007). Privacy initiatives. Retrieved August 16, 2007, from: http://www.ftc.gov/privacy/index.html
National Conference of State Legislatures. (February 3, 2006). State laws related to internet privacy. Retrieved August 17, 2007, from: http://www.ncsl.org/programs/lis/privacy/eprivacylaws.htm#disclosure
Florida Division of Consumer Services, DOACS. (2007). A to Z resource guide, page P. Retrieved August 17, 2007, from: http://www.800helpfla.com/azguide/azguide_p.html#phishing
Florida House of Representatives. (2005). HB 481, engrossed 1. Retrieved August 17, 2007, from: http://www.myfloridahouse.gov/
© 2007. Scott Macdonald