By now you have no doubt heard and read a lot about , good email practices, etc. When you send an email to someone, they could in theory find certain information about you that you have posted online, or associated with that email address. Do a search on your own name and email address to get an idea of what is floating around the Internet about you.

Now here are a few important points. Do not use your full or even partial name in the address. If your address is johnsmith@anyisp.com, people will assume your name is John Smith. Once someone has your name, they can do background checks and search for you. If it is an unusual or unique name, they may find out quite a bit about you.

Your Internet Service Provider has probably provided you with a few . But these addresses are no doubt associated with your personal info. You certainly do not want that to be made available online, right? Your ISP should not reveal it unless forced to by the government or a law enforcement agency, but the data is there, and mistakes happen.

So it may be a good idea to avoid using your ISP email account altogether. Free web-based email such as Yahoo, Hotmail or Gmail can be accessed from any computer. You can easily cancel an account and open another, if you start to get too much jun k email. When you sign up, they ask for your name. But you can use a nickname, or any name.

Finally, never reveal your Social Insurance/Security Number or birth date online. These are two highly critical pieces of data that make it much easier to assemble information about you. And do not forget to change your every couple of months.

Syd Tash is a noted computer security consultant and author of How to Protect Your Computer Online. He has been keeping Internet surfers safe and secure since the last century. Find out how he does it; protect your own computer with five layers of protection right here:
=> http://MyPCSecuritySite.com

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