Online Privacy information There are a number of ways your identity and privacy can be compromised via the Internet.

General Privacy Resources

• Electronic Privacy Information Center   - EPIC cover all aspects of privacy on and off the net.  Of particular use is Epic's Guide to Practical Privacy Tools and Epic's Guide to Privacy Resources .
• Privacy.net - lots of resources including a cookie demo and analysis of your internet connection.
• Privacy page from Firewallguide.com.
• Electronic Frontier Foundation - The EFF has many resources
• Security Homepage from about.com.

Statistics about the online threat

• Code Red Growth - Watch these animations to see how rapidly this virus infected the world (doubled every 37 minutes).
• CERT Statistics -Show how many attacks are being reported to Cert.
• Saphire Slammer Worm  infected 75,000 machine worldwide in only 10 minutes. (Doubled every 8.5 seconds) - CAIDA Analysis.
  

Identity Theft - Once someone learns enough about you, they can assume your identity and cause havoc in your finances.

• Identity Theft Resources - from Privacy Rights Clearinghouse.
• http://www.idtheftcenter.org/, Identitytheft.org,   http://www.privacyrights.org/fs/fs18-cyb.htm ,  wikipedia article

Privacy Policy Resources-

• Privacy policies defined:
• Organizations that monitor privacy policies: TRUSTe , BBB ,
• Example Web Site Privacy Policies: Nintendo , Yahoo ,
• Platform for Privacy Preferences - P3P is a standard that gives the ability to set a privacy preference in the web browser. They  have a list of example websites that Use P3P .

User actions:

• Keep Your Windows operating system up to date (start menu --> windows update) or click here .
• Get the Latest updates for your Microsoft Office Suite.
• Check for updates for any other software that is Internet-aware (Firewall, antivirus program , Chat program, etc)
  
• Disable hidden filename extensions -

Future?

• drivers license  site (national database ?),
• grocery stores are tracking you in more ways than you realize..
• Spychips - being embedded in your purchases?
• "Hollywood Hacker Bill" - a proposed law may allow copyright owners to hack into your computer. article , article #2 ,
• Buying Trouble - an article that shows how common data, such as your local supermarket purchases, may be bought, sold, or given away.
• Ways for someone to research about you-  See my Searching the Internet for an individual page.

Note for my Alumni: Your referrals are always appreciated