Dear friends and colleagues,

In September 2017, Privacy Rights Clearinghouse celebrated a significant milestone: 25 years of engaging, educating and empowering individuals to protect their privacy. This would not have been possible without the dedication of our founder and Executive Director, Beth Givens. Beth’s vision to create comprehensive consumer education resourc

es coupled with her tireless drive in the fight for strong privacy protections has been an inspiration to individuals both within the organization and nationwide.

Currently, all Medicare cards have your Social Security number printed on them. So if you lose your Medicare card, your Social Security number may be compromised: possibly leading to identity theft.

Beginning in this month, Medicare will start mailing out new cards with randomly-generated Medicare Beneficiary Identifier numbers instead of your Social Security number. These cards will be mailed out to the address you have on file with the Social Security Administration in phases by geographic location.

A credit freeze is the greatest protection you have against identity theft, specifically new account fraud. In 2003, California became the first state in the US to pass a law giving its residents the right to freeze their credit. While this was a great step forward with California leading the way towards a better-protected public, the time has come to take the next step.

Facebook and Cambridge Analytica have been dominating the latest headlines, but we shouldn’t treat this scandal as an isolated incident. This is really a symptom of a much larger privacy problem and just one reason we need far more comprehensive privacy protections.

Jane, a pregnant woman, was asked to sign an authorization to release her personal health information to a pharmaceutical company before getting a prescription she needed to help insure the well-being of her and her unborn child. The doctor’s office called her and said she’d need to download and fax a Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) authorization form before she could get her medication. She didn’t think much of it until she downloaded the form and read it. A few things didn’t add up.

If you are expecting a tax refund this year, it’s a good idea (in light of the recent Equifax breach, especially) to file your return as soon as possible to avoid someone stealing your refund. This can occur when someone uses another’s Social Security number to file a tax return in their name to claim their refund. Victims will likely be unaware that this has happened until they file their tax return and discover that another return already has been filed in their name.

Sharing some of your personal life through online dating apps and websites may be a necessary component of searching for a partner in today’s world. But are you sharing more than you think you are?

As we barrel towards a world where our cars can drive themselves and may be speaking to other cars on the road (or to the internet at large), our vehicles are getting a more complete and intimate view into our personal lives than ever before.

The Federal Trade Commission recently settled charges with VTech, a company that sells electronic toys, over allegations that it violated a children’s privacy law. The FTC alleged that VTech’s Kid Connect app collected children’s personal information without providing parents sufficient or direct notice, obtaining appropriate parental consent, or taking reasonable steps to secure the data it collected.

Having overindulged a bit during the winter holidays, many of us are now trying to get into better shape for the new year. To assist in that goal, there are numerous fitness apps and wearable tech that can help motivate you and keep you accountable. But are you losing more than just a little bit of holiday weight by using them?