It hadn’t happened in a while, so I guess it was time.
My credit card got compromised.
Some crook tried to charge $153.83, first with a $6.71 purchase at an inn and then a $147.12 transaction with a European airline I’d never heard of. The charges were denied and triggered a fraud alert. I closed the account.
Even if the card company hadn’t blocked the charges, I would have known about them just as quickly. I’ve set up alerts to ping me whenever any purchase is made.
I feel violated and vulnerable. I have no idea how the breach happened.
Arriving in my mail this month was the new issue of Consumer Reports. And coincidentally, the November cover story is “How to Protect Your Privacy.”
Consumer Reports is always my go-to source before I make a big purchase. The latest issue marks some major changes. There’s a new logo and the magazine has updated its rating charts.
The buying guides have also been revamped, and the Consumer Reports website now features interactive 360-degree videos. See a rundown of all the updates at consumerreports.org/changes.
Consumer Reports begins by taking you on a journey with a piece by Julia Angwin, a senior investigative reporter at ProPublica. In Angwin’s quest to lock down personal information, she uncovered leaks in her own life.
“The shift toward data as currency began somewhat innocuously,” she writes. “At first we simply accepted ads targeted to our search queries.” But now, “the trade-offs have become more extreme. We implicitly agree to have our movements followed both virtually, as we browse the web, and physically, as our phones transmit our locations.”
That observation made me think immediately of Kim Kardashian West, who was recently robbed at gunpoint in Paris. The thieves took millions of dollars’ worth of jewelry.
During a “60 Minutes” interview before the incident, the reality star said this about how social media can rob you of your privacy: “There are pitfalls — lack of privacy, loss of privacy — and that might not be for everyone. For me, I can handle it.”
Even if you aren’t flaunting your affluence online, you’re likely posting things that leave you exposed.
Police have warned folks against posting about vacations online while you’re away or even before you leave. You’re broadcasting that no one will be home.
Angwin points out research that made me rethink something that I do often. You’ve all gotten that screen with privacy-policy information and, like me, you probably just click “Accept” without reading through it. Researchers at two universities found that 74 percent of people who joined what was actually a staged social media network either didn’t read the privacy policy, in accepting the terms, users literally agreed to give up their firstborn child.
“Even if we read all those policies, we still couldn’t accurately weigh our privacy trade-offs,” Angwin writes. “We don’t know what the data will cost us in the future.”
For a year, Angwin decided to stay connected online — but in a limited capacity that disconnected some of her data. It wasn’t as hard as she had thought. She started where we all should: updating all her software.
You may not want to go as far as Angwin did — she stopped using LinkedIn and Facebook — but you can remove some of your personal information. I don’t answer all the personal questions that some sites and apps encourage me to, such as where I went to high school or my birthdate.
Get the new Consumer Reports and follow the many steps Angwin took. The issue also offers 66 ways to take control over your data. The first is to check if your data is on sale on the web. Go to haveibeenpwned.com.
Michelle Singletary welcomes comments and column ideas. Reach her in care of The Washington Post, 1150 15th St. N.W., Washington, DC 20071; or singletarym@washpost.com.
