Personal Items
I’ve been working for the last week on clearing off my desk from all the clutter and stacks of papers that accumulate over time. This has been no small task, and, although I can now see my desktop, I am by no means finished.
One of the reasons it is taking me so long is that I carefully look over every piece of paper before tossing it. First I have to decide if I still need it. If I don’t need it anymore, I have to look it over for any personal information that could be on it. To me, personal information that I wouldn’t want out includes phone numbers, address, marital status, income figures, account numbers, driver’s license information and of course, my social security number.
When I find a document that has any pertinent information on it, I shred it. I have a shredder located right here at my desk, I make it easy on myself. I shred so much paper that I have to empty it at least once a week. By the way, this is my third shredder and my second professional strength shredder. I wouldn’t be without one.
Unfortunately, as hard as I try to make sure nothing personal gets out, I don’t know if I will ever feel totally secure. Probably one of the biggest reasons I feel this way is in the mail that arrives every single day. Junk mail, mainly in the form of credit card offers. I receive at least one of these every single day, and on a big mail day, I’d say there could be 5 or 6 in the mailbox. I usually don’t even bother to read these, they tend to go directly into the shredder.
I’m considering using a service called lifelock that would help me reduce the amount of junk mail offers I receive, plus, they protect my name and personal information, with a guarantee of up to $1 million! That might certainly help me to feel more secure.
What things do you do to protect your identity?
