On March 2, 2022, California Attorney General Rob Bonta urged individuals affected by the T-Mobile breach in 2021 to take advantage of resources to assist with preventing or responding to identity theft. According to the consumer alert, more than 53 million individuals were affected by the breach, including over 6 million California residents. The compromised
Privacy Tips
Privacy Tip #320 – 2021 Goes Down as Top Year for Fraud
By Linn Foster Freedman on
Posted in Privacy Tips
2021 will go down in our minds as many things, including the year in which more people reported fraud and the highest dollar amount of fraud losses in history. Not a great statistic.
According to the Federal Trade Commission’s Consumer Sentinel Network Data Book 2021 (the Data Book), the FTC received 5.7 million reports from…
Privacy Tip #319 – How Facial Recognition Technology Works and Why You Should Care
By Linn Foster Freedman on
Posted in Privacy Tips, Social Media
I have written about the privacy concerns of facial recognition technology many times before [view related posts].
Many individuals are unaware of how facial recognition technology works, who is collecting their facial geometry, and how their biometric information is being used and disclosed.
The Texas Attorney General sued Meta Platforms (fka Facebook) this week,…
Privacy Tip #318 – IRS Abandons Use of Facial Recognition for New Accounts
By Linn Foster Freedman on
Posted in Privacy Tips
The Internal Revenue Service announced in November 2021 that it would use facial recognition technology offered by ID.me to authenticate taxpayers before using any online services the IRS provides, including viewing accounts, making online payments, or updating personal information. The IRS expected taxpayers to create an ID.me account no later than summer of 2022 by…
Privacy Tip #317 – Social Media Fraud Increased in 2021
By Linn Foster Freedman on
Posted in Privacy Tips
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) recently released data showing that more than 95,000 consumers reported losses totaling $770 million from fraud schemes that started on social media. That is a staggering amount of money lost by consumers and is a significant increase from losses of $258 million reported in 2020.
According to the FTC, the…
Privacy Tip #316 – Dabbling in Crypto? Be Wary of Rug Pulls
By Linn Foster Freedman on
It’s very hard to keep up with digital and crypto lingo. But if you are dabbling in crypto, you need to know about rug pulls. What is a rug pull you ask? According to blogger Migi Delfin, “A rug pull is a fraud scheme that tricks people into investing money in a fraudulent product. In…
Privacy Tip #315 – Redline Malware Used to Steal Saved Credentials
By Linn Foster Freedman on
Posted in Privacy Tips
Passwords are so difficult to remember. We all know we shouldn’t use the same or similar passwords across platforms. Stolen password credentials are dumped on the dark web and criminals use the stolen passwords to steal other data from victims, including frequent flyer miles, online banking credentials, cryptocurrency and other digital assets, and to get…
Privacy Tip #314 – Got a Genetic Testing Kit for Christmas? Read This Before You Send In That Swab
By Linn Foster Freedman on
Posted in Privacy Tips
I have written about genetic testing kits before, but this subject matter is worth repeating. I find that people don’t always understand the consequences of sending a swab to a genetic testing company. Consumer Reports recently came out with a study led by its Digital Lab experts entitled “The Privacy Problems of Direct-to-Consumer Genetic…
Privacy Tip #313 – Data Breaches Aren’t Going Away Anytime Soon
By Linn Foster Freedman on
Posted in Privacy Tips
2021 is behind us. Whether that is positive or negative for you, in my world, it was another record year. A record year of data breaches.
According to The Identity Theft Research Center (ITRC), data breaches in 2021 surpassed the previous record year of 2020 by 17 percent. The incidents ranged from the theft of…
Privacy Tip #312 -Impersonation Fraud Increased During Pandemic
By Linn Foster Freedman on
Posted in Coronavirus, Privacy Tips
Another fall-out from the pandemic is that impersonation fraud has increased dramatically. According to the Federal Trade Commission, “the COVID-19 pandemic has spurred a sharp spike in impersonation fraud, as scammers capitalize on confusion and concerns around shifts in the economy stemming from the pandemic.” Impersonation fraud costs “have increased an alarming 85 percent…