tinuvial: (Default)
tinuvial ([personal profile] tinuvial) wrote2011-04-03 05:43 am

Protecting your privacy...


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.

[identity profile] jennlyle.livejournal.com 2011-04-03 11:36 am (UTC)(link)
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.

[identity profile] jennlyle.livejournal.com 2011-04-04 07:31 am (UTC)(link)
Heh... Best Buy just got hit too.