Over the last few weeks there’s been a noticeable uptick in the number of news outlets covering the growing concerns over how your cellphone can be used to spy on you, track you, and invade your privacy. Even taking a photo with your smartphone can carry consequences.

While the above news story may seem grim, there is a silver lining of sorts. Having worked with law enforcement on cases where police were able to completely map a suspect’s movements over a period of time simply by the location of their cellphone, I can see the enormous value in using cell tracking and monitoring as a policing tool. There’s even this story of a retrieved iPad using the same technology.

So geolocation services can’t be all bad. Can they?

An entire industry has sprung up offering a wide range of very powerful tools that could be tracking you through your cell phone – even if you’re not using it. In a recent article on CNN entitled “How GPS tracking threatens our privacy” civil liberties attorney Catherine Crump righty pointed out that “It doesn’t matter whether your phone is a smartphone or whether you use it to make calls; as long as your phone is turned on, it registers its location with cell phone networks several times a minute, and all U.S. cell phone companies hold on to that data, some of them for years.

She added “Cell phone tracking can reveal our private associations and relationships with one another. The government could make note of whenever people being tracked crossed path or spent time together, showing who our friends, associates and lovers are.”

Law enforcement have become very adept at figuring out how to use cellphone towers to track the movements of suspects, and even get dumps of cellphone data from cellphone companies. And many of the companies that provide the tools of the trade also provide free training to law enforcement in this growing area of digital investigations and forensics.

Speaking in an article in the Wall Street Journal, a magistrate in Texas estimated that anywhere between 20,000 and 30,000 court orders to track cell phones are issues every year. And as the article pointed out, it’s a very grey area because the target of the order, the suspect, is rarely served with the warrant to track his cell phone use. That warrant goes straight to the cell phone company.

So how can you protect yourself? Apart from the fact that you should never commit a crime and even think of getting away with, the only way to prevent your movements being tracked is to keep your cell phone switched off until you need it. But of course that doesn’t stop law enforcement learning things about you and your friends if they’re tracking your friends’ phones.

RELATED STORY: Judges Weigh Phone Tracking

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203733504577024092345458210.html?mod=WSJ_hp_LEFTTopStories

Continuing this week’s attention to  National Small Business Week, IDGuardian has stepped back into its video archives to present a special video replay of Neal O’Farrell and his advice for small businesses and strategies against identity theft, credit fraud, and security breaches.

These audio and video columns can be listened and or viewed to in a variety of ways:

• Through the blog via the media player found in this blogpost
• Through a manual download by clicking on the “Download” link
• By subscribing through iTunes
  

This episode features Neal O’Farrell, a nationally recognized expert on cybercrime and identity theft. Neal is a board member of the Center for Information Security Awareness and the first to train an entire police department in identity theft awareness. That program has since been used by more than 200 police departments and academies, as well as the FBI, the DMV, and U.S. Attorney’s Office. Neal is also the co-founder, with Intersections Inc., of the Identity Theft Council, a community-based initiative founded to help police departments across the country combat identity theft.

This podcast is copyrighted 2010-11, IDGuardian.com, All rights reserved.

Any use of the Content not expressly permitted by IDGuardian’s Terms of Use may violate U.S. or international copyright, trademark, and/or other laws. For questions or feedback please contact us at questions@IDGuardian.com.

Thank you for listening,
and stay safe.

A story of identity theft turns into a mission to protect others
Personal story of ID theft turns into warning
From WMAR, Good Morning Maryland

Talk to anyone who has been a victim of identity theft and they will tell you that getting your life back is so hard. You lose your identity, your credit, your money, and it takes years to get it right.

Megan Pringle of Good Morning Maryland sat down with Ralph Domenick, Jr., a victim of identity theft, and Michael Stanfield, CEO of Intersections. The two talked about Ralph’s (and his wife) experience of losing their identity along with how they worked to get it all back, including their money. They both also talk about what you can do now and the help you can get to keep yourself from being a victim of identity theft.

From our home office of Intersections Inc, Senior Vice President of Operations Andy Gerry was recently featured on NBC as part of a national media piece discussing kids and identity theft. Take a look at this in-depth piece of a topic that we at ID Guardian are watching closely and continuing to report and comment on to you.

Welcome to the IDGuardian Podcast. These audio and video columns can be listened and or viewed to in a variety of ways:

• Through the blog via the media player found in this blogpost
• Through a manual download by clicking on the “Download” link
• By subscribing through iTunes
  

This episode features Neal O’Farrell, an expert on cybercrime and identity theft, and the Consumer Security Adviser for Intersections Inc. Neal is a board member of the Center for Information Security Awareness and the first to train an entire police department in identity theft awareness.

This podcast is copyrighted 2010, IDGuardian.com, All rights reserved.

Any use of the Content not expressly permitted by IDGuardian’s Terms of Use may violate U.S. or international copyright, trademark, and/or other laws. For questions or feedback please contact us at questions@IDGuardian.com.

Thank you for watching,
and stay safe.

ID Guardian presents a special video posting today: an in-depth look at the Identity Theft Assistance Center through the experiences of an identity theft victim.

Through Intersections’ exclusive partnership with ITAC, the Identity Theft Assistance Center, we have been able to help hundreds of companies manage breaches affecting millions of people and assist thousands more to recover from identity theft. ITAC unites consumers, law enforcement, financial services companies and creditors in fighting identity theft; a service no other breach response provider can offer.

With ITAC’s top-rated customer support, we are here to provide you with the necessary tools and the peace of mind to guide you along the way to identity theft recovery, no matter how big or small. This video (featuring ID Guardian contributors Michael Stanfield and Anne Wallace) is just one of many examples of how Intersections and ITAC are working for you.

Welcome to the IDGuardian Podcast. These audio and video columns can be listened and or viewed to in a variety of ways:

• Through the blog via the media player found in this blogpost
• Through a manual download by clicking on the “Download” link
• By subscribing through iTunes
  

This episode features Jerry Thompson, co-founder of White Sky Inc. White Sky protects consumers from identity theft and online crime when they are at their most vulnerable: when they conduct financial transactions on the Internet. With Bill Loesch, Jerry founded White Sky around an easy-to-use, convenient solution to safeguard consumers against identity theft and online crime. Today, that solution — ID Vault — is used by tens of thousands of customers in all 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico.

This podcast is copyrighted 2010, IDGuardian.com, All rights reserved.

Any use of the Content not expressly permitted by IDGuardian’s Terms of Use may violate U.S. or international copyright, trademark, and/or other laws. For questions or feedback please contact us at questions@IDGuardian.com.

Thank you for listening,
and stay safe.

Welcome to the IDGuardian Podcast. These audio and video columns can be listened and or viewed to in a variety of ways:

• Through the blog via the media player found in this blogpost
• Through a manual download by clicking on the “Download” link
• By subscribing through iTunes
  

This episode features Neal O’Farrell, a nationally recognized expert on cybercrime and identity theft. Neal is a board member of the Center for Information Security Awareness and the first to train an entire police department in identity theft awareness. That program has since been used by more than 200 police departments and academies, as well as the FBI, the DMV, and U.S. Attorney’s Office. Also watch for featured selections from the 2010 Javelin Report on Identity Theft in this video. More information on that study can be found at http://www.idsafety.net.

This podcast is copyrighted 2010, IDGuardian.com, All rights reserved.

Any use of the Content not expressly permitted by IDGuardian’s Terms of Use may violate U.S. or international copyright, trademark, and/or other laws. For questions or feedback please contact us at questions@IDGuardian.com.

Thank you for listening,
and stay safe.

It is hard to believe that IDGuardian launched only four months ago (September 11, 2009 as a matter of fact); and in such a short time, we have brought you sound advice, different perspectives, and forward-thinking opinions on the subjects of Identity Theft, Credit Security, and Online Safety.

If you are new to IDGuardian, thank you for joining us. We have, at the closing of the year, compiled the “Best Of” from 24 blogposts so you can get a feel for what you will find here. For those of you already subscribed to IDGuardian, thank you for joining us and we hope you enjoy this retrospective of a new blog.

Take a look at what we have deemed the “notable bytes” from 2009 and feel free to leave your own favorite blog or podcast entry in the Comments section.

.

September

The ironic twist is that the burglars who use your own freely-offered personal life story to target your home when you’re not there are in fact not looking for your new TV or X-Box. What many of them are after is your Social Security number, birth certificate, financial statements and anything else they can use to clone your identity and hijack your life.

— Neal O’Farrell, When a Stranger Comes Calling

A more common method is to launder the money, once again internationally.  Many times this is done through unsuspecting money mules.  A typical scenario involves a mass spam campaign advertising to the recipient that he/she can make hundreds or thousands of dollars a week working from home.  Or then there’s the “you’ve won the Spanish lottery” spam, or the “you can recover this bank account you forgot you had” spam.  In all these cases, the point is to swindle the money mule into sending legitimate funds to the con man.  If it’s a straight on con, then they just keep the money.  If they’re laundering money, then they will actually send back some amount of “dirty” money in exchange for your “clean” money.  Now you’ve not only been cheated, but you’re part of an international identity theft and money laundering scheme.

— Matt Sarrel, Identity Theft: An International Consipracy

October

What [hackers are] usually after is personal information that can be used in identity theft. So just think of the information you may already post and share that hackers could use in identity theft – information like your name, date of birth, home address, work address, current employment, employment history, mother’s maiden name, family, friends, pets, your first school, favorite teacher, vacation plans, likes and dislikes, even photos of you and everyone you know. The list is endless.

— Neal O’Farrell, What Social Networks Really Reveal

But while the hype cycle of social networking risks may be at an all-time high, it’s hard to argue that the emergence of the Web 2.0 sites and applications hasn’t created a complex new set of privacy concerns that end users need to worry about.

The social networks themselves have already become breeding grounds for many different types of electronic attacks and social engineering schemes with most of those threats aimed at somehow stealing your personal data, infecting your computer or using your online reputation to assail those with whom you’re connected.

— Matt Hines, Social Networks Increase Risks to Online Privacy

Identity theft – by whatever name we choose to use – is a real problem, and will continue to be for many years. The world is digital – our transactions, communications, and relationships are tracked by marketers, read by virtual friends, and if not secure, vulnerable to fraudsters.  We can’t change the evolution of technology, nor should we, but we can become smarter about how we use it, who we transact with, the information we divulge, and most importantly, how we secure and monitor our personal information. Education is the first step to understanding the risks. When consumers educate themselves, useful services will dominate the market.

— Michael A. Stanfield, A Reply to Ms. Julia Angwen at the Wall Street Journal

Consider the possibilities for someone to carry out a physical assault, let alone a virtual attack, if they know who you are and where you are at any given time. If I was someone looking to rob your house or a jilted ex-boyfriend planning to stalk your movements, these seemingly innocuous tools would seem to provide a lot of helpful information to do that.

In the computing world, these applications, like other social media tools, unquestionably add another level of risk in terms of allowing someone to create targeted attacks to assail you with in assuming your likeness for identity fraud.

— Matt Hines, Mobile Web Driving New Privacy Issues

November

Many of us have established habits and lifestyles that, quite frankly, we don’t want to change. We like the convenience and benefits associated with loyalty/rewards programs, online shopping, and social media networks. Our information is already in cyberspace in so many different shapes and forms that it’s not likely we can pull it back and start over again. But we don’t need to panic. What we can do is be more vigilant about who we share our information with and ask why it is needed. Does the retailer really need your phone number? (They don’t; it’s for marketing purposes only.) Does your son’s baseball team really need a birth certificate? (Have them verify your son’s age at school.) Ask questions and if you don’t like the answer you get, don’t provide the information.

— Michael A. Stanfield, Lost in Translation

These rules may seem inconvenient or overly cautious to many consumers, but they are designed to help you by keeping the crooks from pretending to be you.  My goal is to make identity theft prevention a part of our learned safety behaviors, like putting on a seatbelt.  You don’t think twice about it.

— Anne Wallace, Be Prepared to Establish Your ID When Red Flag Rules Go into Effect

One of the best gifts scammers will get this year will come from retailers. Shoppers and analysts are already reporting shortages of the hottest Christmas gifts this year, as retailers try to avoid getting stuck with merchandise that they can’t move quickly.  This inventory shortage may force some shoppers to take greater risks than they normally take, and  scammers won’t miss the opportunity to take advantage of busy shoppers who are so determined to get that elusive holiday gift this year that they are willing to do whatever it takes.

— Neal O’ Farrell, Why Black Friday Could Be a Red Carpet for Scammers

Talk to your kids about the importance of their Identity. Teach them not to fill out forms online or offline to win a car, a cruise, or any other freebies in magazines, restaurants, etc.  More often than not, those are marketing ploys and their personal information will be shared across many marketing databases. Parents should carefully monitor all Internet activity and stay actively involved with who their kids are meeting online. They should also keep kids out of Internet chat rooms. Predators are just as real online as they are in public places.  All they need is an unsuspecting child to provide their name and home address, and they could track them down.

— Identity Safety for Your Child

December

Think before you tweet (Twitter), or post anything on Facebook, MySpace, or YouTube. Always assume that what you say, how you say it, and to who you say it will always be only a search away from friends, potential employers, stalkers, Internet predators, etc.

— Identity Safety for Your Teens

— Jerry Thompson, Threats Facing Consumers Online

According to Facebook’s new privacy policy, if you don’t select your own privacy settings Facebook will automatically do it for you, and to a standard that you might not be comfortable with.

For example, under current privacy settings people who are not friends can’t even see your marital status, gender, photo, or location. Under the new default settings, this information will now be open for everyone to see unless you go in and change your personal privacy settings.

— Neal O’Farrell, Saving Facebook

A number of organizations including the National Association of Attorneys General and vendors including Intel, Google and Microsoft recently announced the establishment of “Data Privacy Day” which will be observed on January 28, 2010, and involve a number of promotional events meant to raise consumer privacy awareness.

In more targeted efforts, a group of leading Internet publishers and digital marketing services recently launched an online campaign to educate consumers about how they are tracked and targeted by marketers over the Web. The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) unveiled a related “Privacy Matters” Web site and a number of IAB members including Yahoo, Google, Walt Disney Co. and The New York Times Co. have volunteered to support the effort via links featured prominently on their own pages.

— Matt Hines, Searching for Bright Spots

As you can see by the amount of information (and these are the highlights!) here, IDGuardian has delivered valuable insight and information regarding identity protection and personal safety both in the real and virtual world.

This is, also, merely the beginning.

IDGuardian will, in 2010, bring you the voices showcased here along with new contributors and new features geared to start dialogues and get you thinking. Awareness and education are key in protecting yourself, and IDGuardian is here to do both of these and so much more. We hope that we have aided you in making the latter quarter of 2009 a safe one, and assure you that IDGuardian will continue to offer you tips, advice, and guidance in the coming year.

Thank you for commenting, for subscribing, and for taking part in our community. Celebrate safely, and we will see you in 2010.

Welcome to the IDGuardian Podcast. These audio and video columns can be listened to in a variety of ways:

• Through the blog via the media player found in this blogpost
• Through a manual download by clicking on the “Download” link
• By subscribing through iTunes
  

This episode features Jerry Thompson, co-founder of White Sky Inc. White Sky protects consumers from identity theft and online crime when they are at their most vulnerable: when they conduct financial transactions on the Internet. With Bill Loesch, Jerry founded White Sky around an easy-to-use, convenient solution to safeguard consumers against identity theft and online crime. Today, that solution — ID Vault — is used by tens of thousands of customers in all 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico.

This podcast is copyrighted 2009, IDGuardian.com, All rights reserved.

Any use of the Content not expressly permitted by IDGuardian’s Terms of Use may violate U.S. or international copyright, trademark, and/or other laws. For questions or feedback please contact us at questions@IDGuardian.com.

Thank you for listening,
and stay safe.

IDGuardian is now available on iTunes. If you have the popular media player on your computer, you now can use it to subscribe to the IDGuardian podcast. (And it’s free!) Here’s how you do it:

Step 1: Make sure you have iTunes installed on your Windows or Macintosh computer.

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and stay safe online.

In this interview, Michael Stanfield, CEO of Intersections Inc., introduces you to IDGuardian.com. Michael provides his insight on the mission of IDGuardian.com and offers a preview of what you, the consumer, can expect from our team of experts.