Protecting your privacy...

[tinuvial]

In the last week, I've received email from two reputable companies (Kroger and Disney), advising that their systems had been compromised, and that it was possible that an unidentified third party had obtained my name and email address.

They apologize in advance for the fact that I might receive spam in the form of computer viruses, or possible phishing emails, etc.

For those of you that do not already have multiple email accounts, these examples are 'poster children' for why I have multiple email addresses.

The emails that I use for communication with my financial institutions are insulated to only those institutions, and I always select the 'do not share my information with third parties' option when providing an email address to companies that I do business with.

I have another email address that I use for purchasing things online, a different address for coupons & offers by email (this is the one compromised of late), and yet another address for personal correspondence.

The iPad makes it easy to manage all of those emails into one email box, but the point of this is to remind people that there really isn't anything such as a 'secure' email account, and one of the best precautions is to segregate your online activities by email address.

Ciao for now.

Comments

[ayoub.livejournal.com]

Yes, I maintain a few accounts, too :D

[ladyvox.livejournal.com]

Aye, I too have a whole range of emailaddresses/accounts. One for my personal correspondence, a seperate alias for LJ related stuff, one for my gaming related stuff, onefor photography repated stuff, a seperate gmail for coupons/possibly spammy stuff, a seperate gmail for my craftrelated hobby, etcetc. It may sound a bit overdone to some, but it works for me. My personal emailaddress holds my real name, but I don't always feel comfortable nor feel the need that say folks from the game or from my crafting forum need to know my real name or such just like that, ditto for LJ - once a friendship deepens I'll make known stuff I feel comfortable with heh. That's how in the early days I already had 2 seperate emailaddresses, and over time just more got added haha. I have to admit that gmail does make this easier.. I never liked how hotmail would remove your email and 'freeze' your account after not having logged in for a month.

[jennlyle.livejournal.com]

Yah, I saw the notice from Krogers and was pretty disappointed. Got my Gmail account attached to that. I've been using Gmail webmail for about two or three years now, and its been excellent at filtering out phishing emails and the like... far superior to other web email accounts.

[jennlyle.livejournal.com]

Heh... Best Buy just got hit too.

[bangdrum.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I just got one of those from CollegeBoard.com (not that I've been there for years). I can't be bothered to deal with multiple email addresses; it's bad enough to have to spell (yes, spell) my main one. I have a gmail (technically, I have two, but I've almost never touched one), but it has way too many dots in it to be convenient. It used to be my LJ-comment forwarder address until Gmail decided I was being spammed by LJ...