Welcome to the Office of Privacy Protection

California is the first state to have an agency dedicated to promoting and protecting the privacy rights of consumers. The Office of Privacy Protection was created by legislation in 2000 and opened in 2001. Its mission is to identify consumer problems in the privacy area and encourage the development of fair information practices.

Privacy Tip of the M0nth

“Where did your parents meet?” P!aNe+maR$

California Attorney General Kamala D. Harris said recently that “anyone with an e-mail account is vulnerable to identity theft."

The Attorney General was talking about a California man who pleaded guilty to hacking into hundreds of women’s email accounts.  The hacker did his dirty work by correctly answering the security questions with information found on his victims' Facebook pages.  Pet names, schools, favorite songs, and children’s names opened the door for this identity thief.

Stump hackers. Here’s what to do.

• Make your answers to security questions like passwords: add numbers or special characters. For example, answer “What was your first pet’s name?” not with your dog Fluffy’s name, but with “D0na1Duck%.”
• Pick obscure security question answers that don’t appear in public records and don’t have anything to do with what you share online.
• Mix up the security question answers you choose for password protection on your e-mail services and social networks.
Read more on this case from the Attorney General:
http://ag.ca.gov/newsalerts/print_release.php?id=2026

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Last Updated: Wednesday, March 30, 2011