Electronics company Samsung recently announced that it had suffered a data breach in July that they discovered in August. As a result of the data breach personal information including the names of customers, their birth dates, demographic information and product registration information was compromised. Here is a link to Samsung’s notice to its customers about the data breach. https://www.samsung.com/us/support/securityresponsecenter/
So what can you do to protect yourself from these data breaches that will be occurring?
TIPS
One important lesson is to limit the amount of personal information that you provide to companies and websites whenever possible. For example, your doctor doesn’t need your Social Security number for his or her records. It is interesting to note that Samsung indicated in its notice to customers stated, “We collect information necessary to help deliver the best experience possible with our products and services” which frankly is a ridiculous claim. Collecting information such as your birth date does absolutely nothing to provide a better experience for the customer. Their information gathering is primarily for their own marketing purposes. Whenever you provide personal information to a company you should first consider whether the company actually has a legitimate need for that information and refuse to give them anything unless it is in your best interest.
https://www.transunion.com/credit-freeze
https://www.experian.com/freeze/center.html
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