It's not just the government who is gathering information but private companies and even individuals are collecting information about all of us at a startling rate. It is information that is highly personal and should be irrelevant to the business that we are trying to conduct with them.

When we go to a store and buy something and write a check for the purchase, we understand why they ask for your driver's license and if the address is correct. If the check should bounce, they need to know where to find me to make it good. But even if we pay cash for a purchase, why do they have to ask me for my home phone number? To avoid having to give that information and hopefully to avoid calls at home, you can always respond with "It's Unlisted"! If they ask for your cell phone number, you could respond "I don't own a cell phone!"

Have you ever noticed that the cable company, phone company, power company, etc. all ask for your social security number in order to do business with you. They say they need that information in order to provide a credit check and to extend credit for their services. Unfortunately, this number is the most valuable piece of information for identity thieves!

In order to use many of today's online services or even to just view some websites, you have to fill out a registration form. Information such as home phone number, date of birth, and a lot of other details that you may not be comfortable giving out. But some of the sites want to make sure they are not dealing with minors. Why not ask if you are over a particular age limit that they want to set instead?

As a result of many sites asking for your information and all of the warnings given to us about identity theft, people give out a lot of misinformation. If you give false information online, you may be putting yourself at risk of being charged with breaking the law. Everyone remembers the highly publicized case of a mother filling out a false MySpace profile to engage in cyberbullying that resulted in a young girl committing suicide. The mother was charged with obtaining unauthorized access to MySpace to create a fake profile. Ironically, law enforcement agencies themselves often set up false profiles to spy on suspects through the social networking sites.