Forget shredding your mail or worrying about who might have a copy of a recent credit card transaction. You have much bigger problems if you want to keep your personal information private.
In fact, personal information is now so readily available that a total stranger with nothing more than an online connection and a credit card could discover everything there is to know about you. He or she could compile a complete dossier on you, your family members, friends, work associates, or business rivals without any special investigative training.
Fears about identity theft are not limited to spyware or to records stolen from corporate databases. As it turns out, the neighbor next door can be just as big a concern.
"Definitely, using the Internet to spy on average citizens is our next big social problem," said Avivah Litan, security  analyst for identity-theft issues at the research firm Gartner.
Information Frenzy
Until a few years ago, people had few low-cost options available when they wanted to find out about someone else's background. Typical solutions involved paying private investigators hundreds or even thousands of dollars to pore through written records.
But now, for about $50 or less, anyone can take advantage of the search services that have cropped up on the Internet.
"Search engines have gotten better. This spy-on-your-neighbor mentality has come out of the collections world where skip-trace checks by creditors were common," she said.
High-powered information databases were costly to use and often were restricted to law-enforcement officials and lawyers. That is no longer the case. Today, almost anyone can become an "eTective" by taking advantage of various online investigative services.
"If you know where the person lives, and depending what you're looking for, you can search for any relevant court records, real estate ownership, etc.," said Jonathan Penn, principal analyst for identity and security issues at the consulting firm Forrester Research.
And for more detailed investigations, there is LexisNexis, a popular electronic archive of newspaper articles, legal documents, and other printed content. "About $200 will buy you a pretty complete search," Penn said.
Little Brother Is Watching You
Most large-scale theft of personal information has occurred at high-profile companies. For example, a laptop from Fidelity Investments containing information on nearly 200,000 participants in Hewlett-Packard's pension and 401(k) plans was recently stolen. Last year, financial institutions estimated that 55 million personal identification numbers might have been compromised in more than 130 reported cases. (continued...)
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