by Xelan Bonn

Created on: March 17, 2009   Last Updated: January 19, 2011

In today's Information Age, online users are being duped into revealing their private lives to the world. Much of the information can actually be used against the person in the future by criminals, businesses or even police and government. What most online users are unaware of is that they have extensive profiles, which are created by “aggregators.”

Aggregators grab bits and pieces of a person’s identity and all manner of their private profiles from an astounding variety of sources. Such sources can include offline and online retainers of your personal information. They include: grocery and clothing stores, online retailers, government, perspective employers, third parties such as resume handlers, and even video and social networking sites just to name a few.

What most Americans do not realize is that there are strict laws about the personal information that the government can collect from an individual directly. However, government is not stopped from purchasing that same forbidden information from third party aggregators.  This is why millions of Americans now have a highly detailed and complex personal file about many aspects of their life held in government databases.

Government files can include a person’s entire string of social media messaging, texting, e-mail, phone numbers calling in or out, photos, Social Security number, and just about anything there is to know about a person. Under the new healthcare plan, the government will even be able to find out a person’s most sensitive healthcare information. The new FCC plan to require all Americans have an FCC online identity could give the government the ability to collect as much as 100% of a person’s personal information.

So with all this spying on a person, the question is—how do you fool a government that wants to snoop on you as well as criminals, aggregators and others and thereby try to stem the possibility of your personal life and information being put to nefarious use some day in the future? In a word, the answer is lie!

When you go to the grocery store, use your friends grocery card and let her use yours. When you go to the department store, pay with cash instead of credit cards. When you create online profiles, change everything there is about yourself in the profile. And most importantly, whenever you can, avoid giving out any personal information whatsoever.

Should the FCC come calling and demand you create an online identity, boycott the Internet

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