An interesting article by Alison Cooper on the HowStuffWorks web site points out that paying bills online is much safer than sending a check through the post office: “Online bill payment is also safer than the snail-mail method: Your personal information is much more vulnerable to theft if it’s on paper and physically moving through the postal system.” Also, ” You can also use your credit card to pay all […]
Perhaps you don’t want your street address visible to everyone. Mail forwarding services typically provide a new street address for your postal mail and then will forward the received envelopes and packages to any address the customer specifies. Mail forwarding services have been available for years but now such services have moved into the digital age. You can have your physical mail sent to such a service and then have […]
Matt Novak has published an interesting article at https://goo.gl/VzJc9d describing how the CIA always sends old-fashioned snail mail through the postal system. It seems the CIA sends out letters that are secured with a specific type of tamper-proof tape. The “gummed Kraft sealing tape” the agency uses makes sure the letter or package you receive has not been surreptitiously opened along the way. There’s no way to open the envelope […]
Many people have a phobia about using credit cards online. They think it is unsafe to do so as hackers supposedly theoretically could steal the credit card numbers as the information passes through the networks. However, experience has proven the opposite to be true. In fact, using a credit card online is safer than using it in a store and even much safer than sending a check in the mail. […]
Everyone worries about online privacy and data thieves and then ignores the bigger potential losses of privacy. Did you know that the Postal Service uses a mail imaging program to photograph the exterior of every piece of paper mail sent in the United States? According to a “surveillance audit” done by the postal inspector general, which the sleuths at The New York Times uncovered, nearly 50,000 requests from law-enforcement officials […]
Privacy Blog 