WBEZ and the Chicago Sun-Times are gathering your questions about all things money and finance. Each week, we bring you answers from the people who know best.
Uptown resident Todd wants to know about safeguarding your personal data.
“The biggest scam is the lack of security of so many organizations we use on a daily basis. How can we really protect our information?”
Ask for a freeze
We talked to experts, who suggest placing a freeze on your credit report, which can limit the impact of data breaches.
A credit freeze restricts access to your credit report to prevent potential identity theft.
You can freeze your report for free by contacting each credit bureau — Equifax, Experian and TransUnion.
Check privacy policies
Companies are supposed to share their privacy policies on their websites, explaining what type of information they collect from you.
If that information is not available, that certainly could be a red flag. You should always ask yourself, “Does this company really take my privacy seriously? Are they really concerned about securing it?”
Passwords matter
It’s important to have a strong password, and there are some programs that can help.
Consumers can get a password vault. It’s essentially an app that creates very long and complex passwords and a different one for every website. Cybersecurity experts warn against reusing passwords. So, if an attacker has targeted your data, it’s going to take a long time to figure out a password. And if they do, they’re not going to be able to use it on more than one site.
Password habits are a problem because it’s easy to click “Remember my password.” And experts we talked to advise against saving passwords to browsers, due to the risk of malware.
Data breaches that jeopardize your personal information are going to happen.
The best we can do is take a patchwork of preventative measures and protect our data as much as possible, given that we are using online accounts and apps throughout our everyday lives.
We want to get your financial questions answered by an expert. Leave us a voicemail at 312-312-2122, or email us at moneyquestions@suntimes.com.
