{"id":25446,"date":"2022-02-17T14:16:00","date_gmt":"2022-02-17T22:16:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.spokeo.com\/compass\/?p=25446"},"modified":"2022-04-13T12:21:57","modified_gmt":"2022-04-13T20:21:57","slug":"understanding-your-online-identity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.spokeo.com\/compass\/understanding-your-online-identity\/","title":{"rendered":"Overshare? How Your Online Identity Enables Identity Theft"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Jellyfish are remarkable creatures.  The blob-like main body isn\u2019t especially large in most cases, but their fine, filament-like tentacles can cover a crazy-huge area.  In the case of the lion\u2019s mane jellyfish<\/a>, for example, those tentacles can stretch to as much as 120 feet from the body. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what has that got to do with you?  Not much \u2014 unless you swim in the open ocean where that jellyfish lives \u2014 but it provides a useful illustration of how your real-world existence and your online identity relate to each other.  Your physical body occupies one specific point, but your online identity is made up of thousands of threads that extend all around the world, wherever there\u2019s internet service.  Scammers are adept at leveraging that online information to steal your identity and do you harm. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Your Online and Offline Lives Are Connected<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s a fact of human nature that most of us behave differently when we know we\u2019re being observed.  You wouldn\u2019t blurt out the most personal details of your life in the middle of a group of strangers, or leave your checks, your keys or your medical records lying around in random public places. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yet many of us do similar things online, because it\u2019s easy to forget that when you use a digital device you\u2019re always<\/em> being monitored in one way or another.  Every article you read, every site you visit and every online search leaves a trail of data for others to see, and that doesn\u2019t even take into account some of the data you generate \u2014 from the sensors in your phone or smartwatch, for example, or from smart connected devices in your home \u2014 all of which can be utilized in surprising ways by unscrupulous advertisers or outright criminals. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAnything You Say Can Be Used Against You\u201d<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s important to recognize that scammers and identity thieves are adept at getting the most possible mileage out of any piece of information they can find, steal or buy.  A great many sites and apps use one or the other as your username or primary identity. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Attackers who find either of those can attempt to log into multiple sites through a technique called \u201ccredential stuffing<\/a>,\u201d which simply churns through a database of known, compromised passwords until it finds one that works with your account. Most people reuse their passwords (a really<\/em> bad habit), so getting that first match means the criminals can gain access to any other site where you\u2019ve used the same one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At that point you\u2019re in serious trouble, because identity theft is like assembling a jigsaw puzzle: The more pieces they\u2019ve got, the easier it is for criminals to see the whole picture. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Impact of Your Online Identity<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Your online identity, then, can be used by scammers as a lever to pry open the lid to your entire life.  Depending on which information they harvest and which accounts they gain access to, they might: <\/p>\n\n\n\n