Guarding your personal information

I have been double checking my personal information and making sure that I have opted out with the companies I am dealing with.  That got me thinking about what happens to my information when a company closes.

So I started to do some research and don’t seem to find any answers I wanted.  When a company is open and they have your personal non-public information on file (name, address, account number, checking account number etc) most companies are required to comply with the Gramm Leach Bliley Act to protect your personal information.  They are required to disclose to you what they do with your personal non-public information. Then you have the right to opt out so that they don’t share your information with non-affiliated third parties.

With that said, what happens when that company closes?  Not much.  Recently a company that had your personal non-public information on file to expedite you clearing airport security closed.  There don’t appear to be any requirements of what to do with all the information they have on file.

At this point, the only thing you can do is to check your credit report and accounts on a regular basis to give yourself piece of mind.

Your Password is Easy to Guess

If you do any type of online financial transactions, whether you shop online, pay bills, or manage accounts, then you need good online passwords and you need to change them often. Here are some Do’s and Don’ts:

Don’t use passwords that are easy to guess like “welcome,” or “abc123.” And, don’t use passwords that are easy to research, like birthdays, phone numbers or addresses. It should be impossible for people to guess your password just by knowing you.

Do use a random combination of numbers and letters (both upper and lower case). Don’t use some personal association that’s easy to remember, because, no matter how clever you think you’re being, it will probably be easy to guess. You can learn to memorize a random number. After all, you know your phone number and social security number, and those are random.

Do change your passwords often. There are actually services out there that will steal your email password for a fee. They market themselves as private investigators, catching cheating spouses or business partners. If you use the same password for all your accounts, this puts you at great risk. Changing your password often won’t stop hackers, but it will make their work more difficult and expensive.