Identity Theft in 90 Seconds, Why Google and other Search Engines Are a Big Deal
From Customer Worthy, Why and How Everyone in Your Company Must Think Like a Customer, Michael R. Hoffman
Chapter 11 Customer Privacy Is Nothing to Kid About; Electronic data is everywhere and growing
… In case you think the news media or a couple of individuals are overreacting to data theft and easy access to personal and confidential data, please go through this quick exercise.
Step 1. Go online to www.Google.com.
Step 2. Type “Attendee List” in search window.
Step 3. Select “Advanced Search,” go to options under “File Type,” and select “Microsoft Excel (.xls)”
Step 4. Click “Advanced Search” or hit “enter.”
Step 5. Take a look at the Excel files presented. No, don’t open them. They are private information.
Step 6. Edit the search box by adding “Mike” to the front of the search statement.
Step 7. Reexamine the files.
Hopefully, after a couple of people read this book (Customer Worthy @ Amazon.com), these files will become harder to access and will be more protected. Just maybe, companies, individuals, churches, and membership organizations will protect information more seriously.
Is this identity theft? This entire exercise takes about 90 seconds, and if anyone has wised up to this application and no results appear, you can spend another 90 seconds experimenting with words like “name,” “phone,” “home,” “addr_2,” and other file types to see what pops up.
Identity Theft in 90 Seconds, Why Google and other Search Engines Are a Big Deal
From Customer Worthy, Why and How Everyone in Your Company Must Think Like a Customer, Michael R. Hoffman
Chapter 11 Customer Privacy Is Nothing to Kid About; Electronic data is everywhere and growing
… In case you think the news media or a couple of individuals are overreacting
to data theft and easy access to personal and confidential data, please go
through this quick exercise.
Step 1. Go online to www.Google.com.
Step 2. Type “Attendee List” in search window.
Step 3. Select “Advanced Search,” go to options under “File Type,” and
select “Microsoft Excel (.xls)”
Step 4. Click “Advanced Search” or hit “enter.”
Step 5. Take a look at the Excel files presented. No, don’t open them.
They are private information.
Step 6. Edit the search box by adding “Mike” to the front of the search
statement.
Step 7. Reexamine the files.
Hopefully, after a couple of people read this book (Customer Worthy @ Amazon.com), these files will become harder to access and will be more protected. Just maybe, companies, individuals,
churches, and membership organizations will protect information more seriously.
Is this identity theft? This entire exercise takes about 90 seconds, and if anyone has wised up to this application and no results appear, you can spend another 90 seconds experimenting with words like “name,” “phone,” “home,” “addr_2,” and other file types to see what pops up.