Armed only with your name, or address, or phone number it’s simple for anyone to do a few internet searches to discover your full legal name, full birth date, info on family members, and a complete history of everywhere you’ve lived.

Protecting your privacy from the likes of top-notch private investigators and government officials is an art and a science. Though it can be comforting to have, most people do not need this level of protection.

Social networking sites like Facebook and Myspace have privacy controls, allowing you to choose which people on your friends list can see more intimate details like your address and phone number. And most other types of online profiles also let you cherry pick what information to share.

Personally I don’t think it’s wise to post much, if any, personal details to these sites and if you’re really serious you shouldn’t even have accounts there at all. I deleted mine over a year ago. For keeping in touch with friends, I’ll take e-mail or good ol’ fashioned face-to-face any day.

But these sites aren’t what you should worry about anyway. You could delete all your online profiles today, and there would STILL be mountains of data on you lurking around everywhere.

Because most often, the security breaches in your everyday life come from the sources you’d least expect.

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