How to Keep Your Info Private (Even from the NSA)

Thwarting the efforts of a billion-dollar super-secret government spy agency — or anyone else who wants access to your personal information — is not that difficult.

With the recent revelations that the NSA and other agencies have been tapping into corporate streams of data that can provide them with massive amounts of private information about U.S. citizens, now is a good time to start thinking about how best to keep your private information private.

Not a big deal, you say? Well, whether you’re concerned about the government digging through your personal data or not, you should be concerned about protecting your privacy. According to the Department of Justice’s most recent National Crime Victimization Survey, “In 2010, 7 percent of households in the United States, or about 8.6 million households, had at least one member age 12 or older who experienced one or more types of identity theft victimization.” That’s almost one in 10, with 76 percent of them experiencing direct financial loss as a result.

Imagine that statistic was for bank robberies or home break-ins. If 1 in 10 Americans had their bank accounts emptied or their home broken into, we’d all be living in fear. And yet, that’s happening every year to our personal information. Making that information harder for someone else to obtain is Step One in preventing identity theft.

And not all identity theft is of the “crime” variety. There’s a famous quote that I’m paraphrasing: “If you’re using a website and you can’t figure out what they’re selling, you’re what they’re selling.”

Many corporations make a living off of selling or processing your personal habits and preferences for marketers, retailers and government agencies, practically without your knowledge. Since you’re not being paid for this information, and (unless you speak legalese and love spending your afternoons reading “Terms and Conditions”) you’re not aware that it’s being taken and used in this fashion, I’d consider it “theft.” But since the government has yet to agree with me, the best way to prevent yourself being used in this fashion is to get a little more serious about your privacy.

In this article, we’ll focus on the things the NSA has reportedly been looking at. It’s reasonable to assume that if you can stop them from taking a peek at your private information, you’ll have stopped hackers and others, too. Fortunately, thwarting the efforts of a billion-dollar super-secret government spy agency is not that difficult. You just need to know which services to turn to.

It’s important to note that everything in this article is public knowledge. If you’re worried about terrorists reading it and figuring out how to thwart our government’s best efforts at finding them, don’t be. The terrorists already know this stuff. You, however, might not. More