I’ve always loved The Onion for their brilliantly biting sarcasm on every issue from politics to dating.

But I wanted to share this video with you because it drives home a lie you’ve been fed about privacy protection.

A lot of people… ignorant people… have shouted from the rooftops for years that “privacy in America is dead” … but don’t you fall for the rhetoric.

Yes, privacy can be difficult if you don’t know the tricks and sometimes inconvenient -- but dead?

No. At least not yet.

And to make matters worse, a lot of business owners and ordinary folks today don’t value their privacy until it’s too late.

Heed my words: The more successful you are in business and in life, the hungrier the eyes watching you from the darkness.

Most of the privacy claptrap out there is rigged by shameless fear mongers, crazies hiding out in some RV in the middle of nowhere, and special interest groups to confuse and overwhelm -- leaving you paralyzed not knowing who to trust or what to do.

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Cutting down on e-mail spam can be as simple as switching to a new e-mail address, using expendable “black hole” e-mail addresses when signing up on websites you don’t completely trust, or making sure your e-mail server is using Spam Assassin or some other whiz-bang spam killer.

But what about your physical home address?

Sure, you can make good use of P.O. boxes, CMRA’s, and even ghost addresses – but those strategies will only divert unwanted junk mail away from your main location. They won’t solve the large issue of getting the stuff in the first place.

That’s not to say I’m anti-direct mail. I’m not. In fact I like the pleasant surprise of getting an offer in the mail from time to time for something I’m interested in that I never would’ve known existed otherwise. And using targeted direct mail for your own business is just smart commerce.

But they keyword here is TARGETED. That means it’s something you’re going to be hot for the product before you even open the envelope. The problem is, most marketers don’t know the meaning of the word, and that’s why we’re harassed every day with a glut of “pre-approved” credit card offers and a slew of miscellaneous crap.

So here are 4 easy steps you can take to cut down on unwanted junk mail by at least 90%

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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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