We destroy our privacy when we become identity obese by excessively and gradually disclosing our personal information to others which increases our publicness and risk of identity fraud. Unlike weight loss, identity obesity cannot be reversed quickly and may even be irreversible in some cases. Let’s analyze at a high level how we killed our privacy by defining publicness and identity obesity.

First, if we are identity obese, it means that we have shared our personal information with more people and companies than it is necessary to function in the society. For example, people constantly change doctors, refinance, and open new accounts which forces them to share very private information with more people.

Second, if we are identity obese, we most likely have social media obsession and post frequent updates about our life such as where we are, what we’re doing, what we’re thinking or feeling, who we’re with, and the list goes on. The problem is that some people even share information about others which causes problems for everyone involved.

Third, some say a picture is worth a thousand words and when we post thousands of pictures for our friends and their friends to see, strangers start to learn about our habits, our taste in a variety of things, and our whereabouts. On the subject of pictures, today’s face recognition technologies can actually match a person’s face to pictures posted on the Internet to extract information about the person such as name, address, email, and phone number. So, instead of posting your picture on the Net, hide your face when you see strangers taking pictures of you in public because they might be using a face recognition technology to track you down.

Believe or not, we may be our own worst enemy when it comes to disclosing our personal information which can be used against us one way or another.

Update

We have recently posted a video about the Identity Management industry and our expanding services. Please click here to watch the video on YouTube.

Also, please visit our identity theft blog to read revised and new articles.

Thank You and Be Identity Safe,

Henry Bagdasarian
Identity Management Institute

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