The Financial Blog

Which? The consumer guide says that people who shop and interact on social networking web site are at more risk of having their personal information stolen.

Neil Fowler, the Which? Magazine editor, found that there was a shocking amount of information available to a researcher who dug a little deeper, using his name and occupation, they found out the names of people in his family and floor plans to his house.

People who use social networking sites and complete the full profile information requested are most at risk, especially if they leave the settings on ‘default’ which means that they are publicly accessible. This obviously makes it very easy for fraudsters to gather basic information on people and then use it to attempt to get pin numbers for bank accounts and so on.

I remember this subject was covered on BBC’s Watchdog programme around a month ago and using one of the biggest social networking sites around the researcher was able to gather enough information to attempt to open a credit card or get a personal loan in somebody else’s name. It literally took a few hours of researching.

Companies that collect personal data must tell their customers exactly how the data will be stored and used. Which? Is concearned that Oyster card customers do not know that their journeys are recorded and that Virgin Mobile customers are not told exactly how their personal information will be used.

One of the problems is that it’s not compulsory or law for private companies to admit when personal data security is breached or when personal data is lost.

Neil Fowler, Editor, Which?, says: “It was a real shock to see how much personal information about me could be found online, which could potentially be used by crooks to commit fraud. We all need to take steps to protect our data – both online and offline - by being more aware of how our personal data could be used and taking care who we share it with.

“Which? is concerned that some private companies aren’t complying with the Data Protection Act and we urge them to tighten up their processes, so that consumers can be reassured that their data is in safe hands.”

The Which? checklist to reduce your risk of ID theft and fraud

• Regularly check your personal credit file to check it’s accurate
• Check bank and credit card statements to make sure there are no unfamiliar transactions
• Cancel lost or stolen cards immediately
• Use a shredder to get rid of documents you don’t need
• Never give personal or bank details to anyone who contacts you unexpectedly
• Don’t use the same password for more than one account
• Make sure you have up-to-date security software installed on your computer
• Don’t tick ‘yes’ to share your details with third parties
• Give away only the minimum details on social networking sites and make sure you understand the privacy settings

This entry was posted on Friday, February 22nd, 2008 at 11:05 am and is filed under Loans. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.