How to avoid having too much personal information online

SALT LAKE CITY — Many people have a lot of personal information online with different social media accounts, but people may not realize just how much of their information can be accessed by the public.

When you hear the words "identity theft," you don't often think how it affects the dog. However, when Kelly Rayburn's dog, OJ, got a deep cut and needed stitches, she couldn't afford one.

"We had to end up super gluing it together three times in order for it to stop bleeding," Rayburn said.

Rayburn was turned down when she applied for credit with her vet. Her score had dropped 100 points in just two weeks.

"Someone out there is using my social, my ID, my everything, and who knows what they're buying," Rayburn said. She claims she's a victim of identity theft.

Rayburn said there have already been credit cards, car loans, and even a business opened in her name. But how that information was stolen is still in question.

However, a few weeks ago, Rayburn got a letter from Chase Bank stating her personal information including her social security number, user ID, password, answers to security questions, and card number may have been compromised.

"The main problem with identity theft is related to the social security number itself," said Scott Morrill with the Utah Attorney General's Office.

Morrill works the investigation division and specializes in identity theft. He said the Social Security Administration doesn't do enough to track, protect, or identify the misuse of peoples' social security numbers. For criminals, a social security number is the golden ticket and if they've got your social security number, it was fairly easy to get the rest of your information.

KSL investigative reporters talked to people at the Gateway Mall. They talked with a few people, plugged their names into public websites like Facebook, linkedin, peoplefinders, and utvoters and quickly learned what's often considered personal information is not always very private.

In just a few minutes, we found current and past addresses, birth dates, phone numbers, email addresses, places of employment, family pictures and relatives' names plus their contact information.

Many people were concerned with KSL reporters discovered in such a short time.

"I've tried to keep my birth date private, and that's what I did, but apparently it's out there," said Steven Suggs.

"It's crazy how much stuff is publicly available," said Cory Romrell. "If it gets in the wrong hands, that's concerning to me."

Others were not as worried.

"I think you want to be able to find people on the Internet," said Ryan Bruschke. "It's just to what extent do you need to maintain privacy over the Internet."

When a lot of the individual's information was on its own, it wasn't dangerous. However, when the pieces of information were carefully put together, that is when scam artists and criminals could take advantage of people.

"With those scams, now we're starting to see a lot of concerns about phishing," Morrill said. "Those scammers out there are going to be sending out emails asking for personal information."

Rayburn blames Chase Bank for the breach after receiving a letter saying her information may have been viewed improperly. But in a statement to KSL, Chase Bank said, "We have found no evidence that any information was viewed or used improperly and we will continue to monitor."

Tips to protect online privacy

• Stay on top of your privacy settings on social networks. Changing your privacy settings on Facebook is relatively easy to do. Start by clicking on the icon in the upper right corner and select settings. From there you can click on privacy and answer a variety of questions. We had a harder time finding how to change your privacy settings on LinkedIn, but it is possible. Just go to LinkedIn settings where you can manage your privacy controls.
• Don't put your full birth date on your social-networking profiles. Identity thieves use birth dates as cornerstones of their craft. If you want your friends to know your birthday, try just the month and day, and leave off the year.
• Opt out of "people search" sites.There are many websites where our personal information is stored. It is possible to remove yourself from many of these sites by finding the "opt out" option. On peoplefinders.com, you can go to www.peoplefinders.com/manage/. On superpages.com, you can find your name and then opt to remove your listing.
• Opt out of utvoters.comLast year, utvoters.com was able to purchase Utah voter information from the state government that includes birth dates, phone numbers and addresses. The information is posted online in a database easily searchable by alphabet. Although it is possible, it is not easy to remove your information from this website and requires a form to be notarized and mailed. You can also mail a copy of your voter certificate, which can be obtained through your county clerk's office. For information on how to do this, go to utvoters.com/publish.html.

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