[Ebook] How To Be Invisible

Recently in Champaign, IL, I was asked by “JW” to post some details about my talk on staying anonymous. During my 8 Hour Basic High Tech Investigation Techniques, I close the day by discussing how anyone can eliminate much of the private information about them, their family, their home, etc that is online. I also introduce them to the advanced methods of guaranteed privacy that I discuss at the end of the Advanced Course. I will now summarize the entire process through a series of blog posts. These are my experiences and should only be used as a guide to creating your own plan of protecting your privacy.

Let’s start with a discussion about why any of us would care to take the steps to remove ourselves from public view. Every day, several large databases that contain your personal information are sold and traded. These include your home address, phone number (even if unlisted), family members, vehicles, shopping habits, date of birth, SSN, court history, social networks, etc. I suspect that most of the people that read this blog would rather not have all of that information in the hands of anyone that has $6. I believe there are two specific levels of action that can be taken to help with this. The first level involves an attempt to remove as much as you can from the databases as well as remaining conscious of what new information you provide from now on. The second level takes advantage of “invisible” LLC’s that allow 100% TRUE anonymity when done correctly.

Before we go any further, I highly recommend the book “How To Be Invisible” by JJ Luna. If any of this interests you, this book MUST be on your bookshelf. I reference this guide constantly. There is a link to order through Amazon How to Be Invisible: The Essential Guide to Protecting Your Personal Privacy, Your Assets, and Your Life (Revised Edition)

For this first post, let’s concentrate on the first level of action. I keep an updated list of links to eliminate your personal information HERE. These will take you to the proper source for removing your personal information from each specific database or service. This can be time consuming, but is a mandatory step if you don’t want your private information traded and sold. This will NOT protect your home address and phone number from everyone, but will get you out of a lot of lists.

If you want to know what information is out there about you, I recommend my Self Background Check Linksavailable HERE. These will give you a small glimpse of the personal info that is floating around about your life. There is not much you can do about most of it, unless it is incorrect. For example, if you find out that there are inaccurate insurance claims about you, you can request a correction. This can have a huge impact on insurance rates and credit reporting.

Next, it is time to re-visit the social networks that you and your family use. Those MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, and Google pages that have been fun to play with may tell more about you and your family than you care to share. Recently, a class attendee challenged me about what could possibly be gained by someone with bad intentions from her social networks. I quickly located her Facebook and Twitter pages, which linked me through an API to her Flickr account, which displayed photos of her children playing on a trampoline in her back yard. The EXIF data of these photos, taken with the daughter’s iPhone, displayed the GPS coordinates of her home, which was “unlisted”. Additionally, her Tweets all contained her GPS location each time she sent a message.

How to Be Invisible: The Essential Guide to Protecting Your Personal Privacy, Your Assets, and Your Life (Revised Edition)

I recommend looking through all of the profiles of you and your family. If there is something inappropriate, delete it. If you are ready to quite the networks all together, check out seppukoo.com andsuicidemachine.org.
Next, use the links on my site to get out of Google’s services and Data Mining public records. I also recommend a call to your tax accessor’s office and request to have your name removed from the online database of property tax info. They are not required to make your information private in the books, but they will at least make an internet search impossible. If the subject you contact is unhelpful, try again in a few hours or contact the IT department. Often, it will be a computer support person that will actually remove the data any way. After removal, test it out on your county’s website.

This will NOT make you impossible to find. The only true way to do that is to use an LLC the next time you move. If you have been in your current home for more than a year or so, there will always be data out there about you at that location. The next blog post will walk you through the LLC process.
How to Be Invisible: The Essential Guide to Protecting Your Personal Privacy, Your Assets, and Your Life (Revised Edition)

Now comes the most important part of today’s post. Stop providing info to these services! Each time we fill out a survey or list our home address to win a prize, that info is added to a new database. If you are going to take the time to complete the steps above, don’t ruin all of your work by giving new info out.
Consider this the introduction to being invisible. Next post, I will explain the benefits of an “invisible” LLC.
How to Be Invisible: The Essential Guide to Protecting Your Personal Privacy, Your Assets, and Your Life (Revised Edition)

Source: computercrimeinfo.com & amazon.com