Posted on 02/06/2025 2:45:27 AM PST by Libloather
**SNIP**
1. Invest in personal data removal services: While no service promises to remove all your data from the internet, having a removal service is great if you want to constantly monitor and automate the process of removing your information from hundreds of sites continuously over a longer period of time. Check out my top picks for data removal services here.
2. Use personal security caution: Don't sign in to anything using your social media accounts. Sign in with your email instead and be sure to use an email address you've set aside just for these kinds of situations.
3. Do your homework online: Do an online search for the booking website, cruise line or travel agency in question, keeping an eye out for any recent reports of scams or other issues.
4. Check company reputation carefully: Check ClassAction.org, the Better Business Bureau and Trustpilot specifically. This will help you gain comprehensive insights into a company's track record, customer experiences and potential issues.
5. Verify communication legitimacy: Whenever you receive a call, email or text message from a booking service, confirm that it's really them by first checking your account directly and then contacting the company through official, publicly listed channels (not social media).
More ways to protect yourself online when traveling: Here's how to stay safe
Here are some of the "usual precautions" that can protect you from "getting hacked" while traveling.
1. Update all your apps and operating systems before heading off: All those security patches are that much more important while you're traveling. You'll want to download and install all pending updates at least 24-48 hours before your departure, ensuring you have the latest security protections and giving yourself time to troubleshoot any potential update-related issues that might arise.
More...
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
Never let anyone electronically scan your ID for ANY REASON. This is becoming a trend with buying booze, tobacco, and even if you use a card as a credit card instead of a checking card. And they will swipe it under the scanner without even telling you they are going to do it. Once scanned too late. It is now permanently in their system and a security risk going forward. Aside from the fact they might even sell your data. Looking at your ID is one thing, electronically scanning it is a huge no no and no one should ever allow this period. This new trend needs to be squashed...
Agreed 100%
Medical settings are the worst: they act like they have a right to demand to scan your license. My biggest fights are with receptionists.
The best way to minimize your digital foot print when traveling is to leave none at all.
Disable the GPS on your vehicle.
Shut your cell phone off, leave it off and put it in a Faraday bag.
Use no other wireless devices while traveling. This includes free wifi and navigational devices. Paper maps still work.
Use cash for all purchases. Avoid registering with a credit card, if necessary sleep in your car at a truck stop to avoid hotel registering.
This may seem a little too much for most, but if you do want as much privacy while traveling as possible, it’s what you should do.
One of the problems is it is almost a swipe you card and
go process in many places now.
A few years ago, I got annoyed when a grocery store cashier scanned my license when I bought a six-pack of beer, so I put strips of electrical tape over the bar codes on the back. It’s ridiculous enough to check my DOB (I’m 69 years old), but they don’t need any of the other information.
Great idea! Btt
Use a Mule for transportation, sleep in the Stable with the Mule, use cash only for transactions, wear blue jeans and a white T-shirt, wear dark sunglasses, hat, a bandanna over your nose and mouth, mumble if you have to talk.
Or just stay Home.
And no license plate on the Mule.
No mention of a Faraday bag...
“One of the problems is it is almost a swipe your card and
go process in many places now.”
Using a card as a pay device is on you to do or not to do. When you swipe and pay it charges your card as debit or checking. That info is only between you and your card/bank through the pay point service, not that LOCAL vendor. But if you choose “Credit” because you want CC rewards such as frequent flyer miles Etc. Then your CC company wants them to check your ID to make sure it is actually you. A human verification visually is fine. But the vendors are now wanting to scan it electronically also into their own system. Absolutely not!
What I am talking about is when they electronically scan your drivers license or ID card. It has a barcode that automatically connects them to the state ID system and hands their system all your personal data. Real name, address, license number... The state allows access for company systems under the false pretense of “credit check” services.
They will tell you that their system does not “keep” this data but you can bet that it absolutely does. Now you have your data in “another” system it does not need to be in. The more systems it is in the more chance of it being compromised. Aside from the fact they will turn around and also SELL that data on the market.
If they want to just look at it to verify your age or who you are for sure because your want to run your card as “credit” fine. But to digitally scan your ID barcode on the ID is something no one should ever allow. It is a huge privacy and security issue. Just to buy gas and use your card as “credit” at that gas station? A dozen gas companies and stores along your trip? No way... Don’t do it.
And most businesses now require ID to use your card as “credit” because your credit card company requires ID. But your credit card company DOES NOT require it to be scanned like they are doing. Like I say, visually looking at it is one thing, electronically scanning it and entering it into their own system permanently is another and should not be allowed ever.
It is the new trend to gather data, folks need to refuse to let them do this. Go somewhere else or pay another way. “Ok, whatever” should never be the common consensus. It is a very very serious security issue... These store and gas stations have absolutely no right to also add your private ID information into their own system permanently just because you made a purchase as a “credit card” or even because you bought booze. Visual checker verification is ALL that is ever required period.
Well You could be a Bootlegger for the kids waiting around the corner.🤪
I got carded on My 40th Birthday when I ordered a Margarita. The Waitress might have been 22 years old. I laughed and said “You just made My day !!!”
In many cases that just propagates your account numbers through the network in order to perfrom the search.
I’ve read that a “tap” vs a “swipe” is a much more secure way to do the transaction. I use the Apple pay system and I like it.
“A few years ago, I got annoyed when a grocery store cashier scanned my license when I bought a six-pack of beer, so I put strips of electrical tape over the bar codes on the back. It’s ridiculous enough to check my DOB (I’m 69 years old), but they don’t need any of the other information.”
Absolutely period. I go in and ask them, and if they scan IDs I go elsewhere without buying anything at all. The store has absolutely no legal right to do that. States only require a checker to visually verify. Or enter ONLY your birth date manually. NOT scan it for a permanent record of ALL your information and who you are in the store’s system.
That is a “rule” they themselves invented to gather data and it should be illegal. And they always falsely claim it is a state law they have to do that, or that they have to because they are protecting themselves. BS, Human Checker verification is ALL that should ever be required period.
Re: 10 - agreed on this. Several years ago I bought a lottery ticket - the convenience store said they needed my driver’s license to verify my age. I provided to the clerk and he then went to scan it and I said “Stop”. He said it was a new policy the store had so I said no thanks. That policy is no longer in effect at that store. An easy way to get a trove of data about customers.
“An easy way to get a trove of data about customers.”
Absolutely, and as a third party who has no right at all to that information. It is no different than hidden third party data gathering scripts on websites. A third party absolutely has no right to it and we should not be subjected to it at all.
More folks need to draw that line and refuse just like you did.
“I got carded on My 40th Birthday when I ordered a Margarita.”
Showing your card is safe. Letting them electronically scan it is a huge no no. never do it.
As Scott Mc Neeley said back in the 90s, “You have no privacy, get over it”
What about the mule’s cell phone?
✅A snowballs chance in }{€££ !!!,
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