The Digital Doppelganger: Garbage In, Garbage Out

The German etymology of the word "doppelganger" is "double-goer," a double, often ghostly, counterpart to self. The Monster was Victor's doppelganger in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein , and Mr. Hyde was Dr. Jekyll's doppelganger in Robert Louis Stevenson's classic novel .

A digital doppelganger is the technological equivalent of its mythological counterpart, a parallel self designed to protect your identity from the players who are invading your privacy. There's an old computer axiom : "garbage in, garbage out." A digital doppelganger fools the system into thinking you're somebody else, even if that somebody turns out to be nobody! Let's examine Superman's doppelganger.

• Superman's Doppelganger

• First name : Clark

• Last name: Kent

• Address: 1 Daily Planet Square

• City: Metropolis

• State: Illinois

• Zip: 62960

• Phone: [phone]

• Fax: [phone]

• E-mail: <[e-mail]>

• Assistant: Jimmy Olsen

• Supervisor: Perry White

• Spouse: Lois Lane

• Pet's Name: Krypto

• Birth Date: 7-4-38

• Mother's maiden name: Eben

The Golden Rule of Personal Information

When it comes to providing personal information, such as your name, address, phone number, fax number, e-mail address, employer, date of birth, mother's maiden name, or Social Security number, the Golden Rule is very simple:

• When in doubt, leave it out!

You can fill in the blanks with anything you choose, as long as it isn't the truth! Isn't giving out bogus information being deceitful? Yes, but no more so than the institutions that exploit us and traffic in our personal information! Virtually every company we come in contact with employs technology to invade our privacy. Numerous variations are cited throughout this book. Your digital doppelganger will help level the playing field. But before you start using it, you've got to learn when it's applicable .

The Three-Ring Information Circus

There are three information rings ”legal, contractual , and the "circus." You can only use a digital doppelganger in the circus ring. Following are the boundaries and rules pertaining to the provision of personal information in each ring.

The Legal Ring

You are legally bound to provide factual information to the following entities:

• Uncle Sam

• Law enforcement

• IRS

• DMV

• Your employer

• Your bank

• Your credit card company

• Your investment companies

• Your landlord

• Your insurance company

• Attorneys

The Contractor Ring

Provide information to contractors on a "need-to-know" basis. It's advantageous to restrict the factual information you provide in accordance with the pertinence of the service. You aren't obliged to tell the gas company your mother's maiden name, your date of birth, your Social Security number, your fax number, or your e-mail address, for example. They simply need to know your first name or initial, your last name, and your address. Entities in the contractor ring include

• Phone company

• Cell phone service provider

• Utilities

• Cable company

• ISPs

• Anything you subscribe to

There are two reasons to restrict the confidential information you provide to contractors.

1. They sell the information you provide and share it with others.

2. You are the sum of your digital breadcrumbs .

The Circus Ring

This circus ring is the domain of the digital doppelganger. Provide factual information at you own risk. No one in this information ring can be trusted!

• Web sites

• Retailers

• Supermarkets

• Health clubs

• Salespeople

• Telemarketers

• Market researchers

• Nosey neighbors

Before proceeding, grab a pencil and fill in the "My Digital Doppelganger" form. Remember, no factual information. The purpose of this exercise is to be a chameleon!

My Digital Doppelganger

First name: _______________________________________

Last name: _______________________________________

Address: _________________________________________

City: ____________________________________________

State:_________________ Zip:_______________________

Phone:________________ Fax:_______________________

E-mail: __________________________________________

Employer: _______________________________________

Supervisor: ______________________________________

Assistant: _______________________________________

Spouse's name: ___________________________________

Children's names : _________________________________

Pet's name:_______________________________________

Mother's maiden name:_____________________________

Date of birth: _____________________________________

Social Security number: _____________________________

 

Congratulations! As soon as you begin using your digital doppelganger in the real world you'll notice a decline in spam, junk mail, telemarketing calls, and junk faxes. But it only works in the circus ring. So how do you protect your confidential information in the legal and contractor rings? In addition to the Golden Rule of personal information ”When in doubt, leave it out ”there's another option at your disposal. You can opt out of all your privacy agreements.

Opting Out

Without going into all the legal mumbo jumbo, a privacy agreement is a contract to "traffic in" and sell the personal information that you provide to various contractors. Opting out of a privacy agreement is your only means to keep the companies you deal with honest! The opt-out notice shown below accompanied a bill I recently received from Sprint. I immediately picked up the phone, dialed the toll-free number provided, and opted out of the agreement. It took less than a minute because I did it then and there. If you don't opt out of a privacy agreement contemporaneously, it ain't easy! What is the consequence of not opting out? If I hadn't, telemarketers would have my implicit permission to call me on my cell phone ”on my dime ”to peddle junk I don't give a hoot about.

Figure 3.3: Sprint opt-out agreement cover

Figure 3.4: Sprint opt-out agreement inside

Privacy Agreements

Let's examine a privacy agreement up close and personal. Amazon.com has a privacy agreement that you can access by clicking the Updated Privacy Notice link at the bottom of most of the site's pages. This is typical of most privacy agreements. The fine print makes your eyes glaze over, but in the parlance of the information business, "share" is the operative buzzword . Amazon's agreement states

Does Amazon.com "share" the information it receives?

Information about our customers is an important part of our business, and we are not in the business of selling it to others. We share customer information only as described below and with subsidiaries of Amazon.com, Inc.

Figure 3.5: Amazon.com Updated Privacy Notice link

That sounds pretty reassuring until you read a bit further, do some clicking, and find out who Amazon's so-called "subsidiaries" are.

• Affiliated Businesses We Do Not Control: We work closely with our affiliated businesses such as Marketplace, zShops, and Auctions sellers.... In other cases, we operate stores, provide services, or sell product lines jointly with businesses, [which include Toysrus.com, Babiesrus.com, Imaginarium.com, Target, Circuit City, Borders, AT&T Wireless, Sprint, T-Mobile, CarsDirect.com, Hotwire, drugstore.com, The Vacation Store, Ofoto.com, Office Depot, J&R, and Virginmega.com].

Jeff Bezos always had the reputation of being a touchy-feely guy. As you can see, he's extremely trusting when it comes to sharing your information with other businesses that he admittedly doesn't control. Which begs the question, who do they share their information with? Amazon's list goes on:

• Agents : We employ other companies and individuals to perform functions on our behalf . Examples include fulfilling orders, delivering packages, sending postal mail and e-mail, removing repetitive information from customer lists, analyzing data, providing marketing assistance, processing credit card payments, and providing customer service. They have access to personal information needed to perform their functions, but may not use it for other purposes.

Amazon's list of "agents" could include virtually anybody, and Mr. Bezos is certainly more trusting than I would be that the information won't be used for extracurricular purposes. The Internet is replete with horror stories that highlight the misuse of personal information. In a recent speech, Richard H. Brown, the chief executive of technology giant EDS, stated, "The danger to the digital economy's longevity is not from the bursting of the dot-com bubble. Those effects are minuscule compared with those inflicted by breaches of trust." He cited Toysmart, a company that offered to sell its customer records (including credit card numbers and children's names) as part of its bankruptcy settlement as one glaring example of the digital economy's growing breach of trust. What guarantee does Amazon give that the personal information its agents have access to will not be used for another purpose? Absolutely none, unless you believe Amazon can protect your privacy with lip service! Amazon's list of information-sharing stipulations continues.

• Business Transfers: As we continue to develop our business, we might sell or buy stores, subsidiaries, or business units. In such transactions, customer information generally is one of the transferred business assets but remains subject to the promises made in any pre-existing Privacy Notice (unless, of course, the customer consents otherwise ). Also, in the unlikely event that Amazon.com, Inc., or substantially all of its assets are acquired , customer information will of course be one of the transferred assets.

Figure 3.6: Amazon.com privacy agreement

• Protection of Amazon.com and Others: We release account and other personal information when we believe release is appropriate to comply with the law; enforce or apply our Conditions of Use and other agreements; or protect the rights, property, or safety of Amazon.com, our users, or others. This includes exchanging information with other companies and organizations for fraud protection and credit risk reduction.

As you can see, not opting out of one privacy agreement makes your personal information available to dozens (if not hundreds) of third parties. And it's safe to assume these third parties share your information with other third parties, who in turn share it with other third parties. Do you see where this is going? Information is exponential! Before you know it, thousands of companies you've never heard of know all about you: your name, address, e-mail address, phone number, fax number, and cell number, employer, hobbies, buying patterns, the names of friends and family...and that's just the tip of the iceberg!

This final paragraph, buried in the middle of Amazon's privacy notice, provides the only sentence in the entire agreement that gives you an option to opt out. Do you see where it says, " please adjust your Customer Communication Preferences?"

• Promotional Offers: Sometimes we send offers to selected groups of Amazon.com customers on behalf of other businesses. When we do this, we do not give that business your name and address. If you do not want to receive such offers, please adjust your Customer Communication Preferences.

Figure 3.7: Amazon.com Customer Communication Preferences link

Click on Customer Communication Preferences, and you'll be directed to log on to your account. Enter your user name and password, and the opt-out page will appear. This is where you opt out from special offers, contests, promotions, research surveys, solicitations by Amazon.com's shopping partners , spam, junk mail, and all the petty annoyances and invasions of privacy that make you a sitting target. You'll note that everything is selected by default. Deselect everything that isn't essential. Here's a sample of my personal preferences. I deselected everything with the exception of

Send messages: By e-mail only

If you would like to receive e-mail messages: Send text-only messages

Display live order-status information while I shop: Show me shipping and delivery estimates, important messages about my order

Don't greet me by name when I visit other sites to make Honor System payments.

Figure 3.8: Amazon.com customer logon page

If you would prefer to receive only the most essential communication from us: Send me only those messages related to my orders, listings, and bids.

That's all there is to opting out!

The Golden Rule of privacy agreements is always opt out!

Where to Opt Out

You opt out of a privacy agreement the same place you opted in ”by mail, phone, or on the Internet. The rule of thumb is unless you originally registered on the Internet, you'll most likely have to opt out by phone or mail. The best way to opt out is to respond immediately when you receive an opt-out notice, as I did with the Sprint notice that accompanied my monthly bill. Opt-out notices provide a toll-free number where you can use an automated system to opt out. Don't depend on a live operator to opt out for you. Request an opt-out number or Internet link from the operator, then opt out yourself.

Opting out on the Internet consists of following the drill I just outlined. Log on to every site with which you have an account, including ISPs, eBay, MSN, Yahoo, Amazon, AOL, DSL, digital cable, user groups, subscription sites, news services, chat, IM, game sites, and e-tailers , and locate their privacy agreements, which are usually at the bottom of the page. Now locate the link to the appropriate Customer Preferences page. Opting out isn't hard; it's merely repetitive and laborious! However, once you get the old stuff behind and begin to opt-out contemporaneously, it's no big chore.

Figure 3.9: Amazon.com Customer Communication Preferences page

Who to Opt Out From

Who do you have privacy agreements with? The same players surrounding you on the target illustration in the first figure in Chapter 2. Here's a hint: Who do you pay by check or credit card? From whom do you receive catalogs, magazines, spam, and junk mail? Phone, cell phone, cable TV, electric, gas, ISP, bank, credit card, mortgage, insurance, retailers, Web sites, subscriptions ”you have a privacy agreement with virtually every organization and institution to whom you provide personal information. If you haven't physically opted out, you automatically opted in, which means you gave these companies permission to traffic in your confidential information!

Make a List

Opting out takes time. Don't let it frustrate you. You can't do it overnight, but if you do it methodically, it requires less time than you might imagine. Make a list. Each time you receive a bill, catalog, or magazine; log on to a Web site; or get solicited by a company you've done business with, add that company's name to your list and then opt out of their privacy agreement. Take out your wallet and make a note of all the companies with whom you have confidential relationships ”credit cards, banks, insurance carriers , auto clubs, gas stations , discount clubs, supermarkets, health clubs, chain stores ”and add their names to your list. Then opt out of their privacy agreements, one by one.

It's all or nothing; you can't opt out halfway! What's to stop companies from whom you don't opt out from sharing your information with others? As I noted previously, once information is in the public domain, it's out there in perpetuity! Once your information is out there, your only viable option is to manage it. You can't put the toothpaste back in the tube, but you can screw the cap back on by opting out!

Logic would dictate that the opt-out procedure is ass- backwards , and it is! A company should be required to obtain your explicit permission ”in other words, have you opt in ”before harvesting , selling, or trafficking in your personal information. But the unfortunate truth is our laws have not kept pace with the deployment of technology because laws are revolutionary and technology is evolutionary. New legislation takes time and leaves upheaval in its wake. Technology develops moment to moment and advances every day.

There's a second, more nefarious reason why the opt-in/opt-out procedure is ass-backwards. As Tip O'Neill used to say, "money is the mother's milk of politics." The information, technology, and media conglomerates form a powerful information lobby that contributes freely to the slush fund of any politician willing to vote their way. Until legislation is passed that protects the average citizen from the information vultures in our society, the onus is on individuals to opt out on their own!

The top 20 political contributors in the technology/media sector appear in the following table. Do you notice any patterns? I profile Steve Kirsch, the founder of Propel Software, in Chapter 5, which is about junk faxes. Steve is a well-known philanthropist and privacy advocate, as you'll see. His political contributions, primarily to liberal Democrats, were altruistic. I don't believe that's the case with many of these other conglomerates, however. Buying congressional votes is their prime motivation because all have a vested interest in harvesting our personal information. Note that WorldCom and Global Crossing have both gone belly-up despite their million-dollar political contributions.

Figure 3.10: OpenSecrets.org

Top 2002 Political Contributors in the Technology and Media Sectors

Rank	Computer/Internet: $18,247,505	Communications: $77,244,271	Movies/Television/Music: $29,373,492
1	Propel: $3,364,036	Saban Entertainment: $7,782,000	Saban Entertainment: $7,782,000
2	Microsoft: $2,955,028	Shangri-La Entertainment: $6,580,000	Shangri-La Entertainment: $6,580,000
3	Affiliated Computer Services: $524,058	Propel: $3,364,036	AOL Time Warner: $1,169,894
4	EDS Corp: $482,868	Microsoft: $2,955,028	Walt Disney Co: $991,039
5	Gateway: $396,527	SBC Communications: $2,598,875	Vivendi Universal: $809,365
6	Oracle: $387,834	AT&T: $2,259,881	Chartwell Partners: $762,000
7	Cisco: $376,548	BellSouth: $2,110,835	Cablevision: $611,085
8	Siebel: $324,749	Verizon: $1,913,341	National Association of Broadcasters: $601,851
9	Collazo: $242,810	Loral Communications: $1,768,300	National Cable & Telecommunications Association: $483,930
10	Kirchman: $241,404	Newsweb: $1,763,000	Sillerman Companies: $471,099
11	Gen3: $237,000	AOL Time Warner: $1,461,644	News Corp: $463,587
12	AOL Time Warner: $236,000	Global Crossing: $1,214,670	Recording Industry of America: $425,319
13	OmniSky Inc: $235,000	WorldCom: $1,040,964	Viacom Inc: $407,882
14	Intuit Inc: $225,775	Walt Disney: $995,709	Comcast: $393,872
15	eBay, Inc: $207,250	Qwest Communications: $922,145	Hubbard Broadcasting: $326,750
16	Intel: $204,658	Vivendi Universal: $834,815	West Grand Media: $313,000
17	Learning Co: $194,000	Chartwell Partners: $762,000	Jovon Broadcasting: $275,000
18	VeriSign: $159,467	Echostar: $655,750	Charter Communications: $246,930
19	Escription: $154,000	Cablevision: $611,085	Bresnan: $239,750
20	Dell: $138,749	National Association of Broadcasters: $601,851	King World Productions: $239,000
Source: Center for Responsive Politics/OpenSecrets.org

Practicing Stealth

I asked my mother if she knew what a privacy agreement was. She said, "Sure, I get them in the mail all the time." I asked her what she did with them, and she replied, "I rip them up and throw them away! What do you think I do?"

Practicing stealth is like opting out ”you can't do it halfway. Stealth is invisibility! Just as a firewall makes your computer invisible to others on the network, practicing stealth puts a virtual firewall between you and those who would invade your privacy. You take vitamins to fortify your health. Fortify your privacy by practicing stealth!

The best way to practice stealth is follow the two Golden Rules. When it comes to providing personal information:

• When in doubt, leave it out!

When it comes to privacy agreements:

• Always opt out!

And don't forget:

• Use your digital doppelganger!