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2We wish there were a way to put a stop to all 100% of the snooping that goes on in our personal lives, but since there isn’t any silver bullet to solve this growing problem, we shouldn’t just surrender and give up altogether. There are several things that we can do to make it much harder for Internet scams, spammers and government snoops from collecting any more personal information about us than they need to.

Before we move on and discuss the featured Internet tools to stop big brother from snooping on you, let’s first discuss a few things not to do, so to prevent anyone from collecting personal information about you. In the right hands, your personal information is as valuable as gold that can be bought and sold over and over again, but in the wrong hands your personal information can be used to assume your identity and trash your upstanding reputation.

On the Internet, there are hundreds of survey companies that offer to pay you or give you products, just for filling out their surveys. Don’t do it, before carefully considering the trade off.

You will be asked to give your name, address, phone number, age, income, and much more before you even begin filling out the survey and this information is usually shared, traded or sold to marketing and advertising agencies or private individuals willing to pay for the information about you. This can and usually does lead to unwanted spam, potential scams and even late-evening dinnertime telemarketing sales calls to your home or cell phone. Plus, Big Brother (government agencies) can potentially demand information brokers to release any personal information about you with or without cause and without you knowing about it.

Here is your chance to start taking steps to stop the snoops wanting to spy on you. These useful Internet tools will not provide absolute protection from all snoops, but it will surely make their jobs much more difficult – the way that it sure be.

Hoax Busters

The Internet is chalk full of email hoaxes and Internet scams that are designed to steal your personal information, so to be used to make the scams lots of money at your expense. Use this website to keep informed of the latest Internet hoaxes and scams, so that you can avoid becoming the next victim of identity theft.

Email Encryption

Each time any of us write and send an email over the Internet there is a real chance that someone other than the person that we intended to receive it has read our private communication. The standard email programs that most Internet Providers offer their users are not as fully protected from prying eyes as they could be. This website provides an excellent blog that teaches you how-to encrypt your email, so that most snoops are unable to read your private communications without your permission.

MintEmail

Never share your personal email address with anyone that you do not know or with any website that does not have a comprehensive privacy policy. It’s just not worth sharing your personal email address, so that you can sign up for a newsletter, social network or join some other Internet club. Use MintEmail to get a four-hour temporary email address and some other really cool features that you can use to join, use or receive information from the Internet. This type of email address is utterly worthless to information brokers and identity thieves.

Numbr.com

Sometimes we discover something that we really want to participate in on the Internet, but in order to sign up, we are required to give our phone number. Unlike an email address, our phone number can be used to deliver telemarketing phone calls all times of the day or night, and even the worse part is that it can be used to identify where you live by using certain Internet tools. Numbr.com offers free disposable phone numbers that can be setup to expire whenever you need them to, but still receive real phone calls from those people that you are expecting to call and not expose your personal information over-the-Internet.

National Do Not Call Registry

Send a message to all telemarketers in the United States of America that you do not want to receive their telemarketing phone calls by having your phone number added to the National Do Not Call Registry.

Stop Cell Phone Spam

Put a stop to cell phone spam and unwanted cell phone text messages sent by marketing and advertising agencies wanting you to buy their products and services. This is an excellent blog from the Michigan Attorney General that explains in some detail how to go about eliminating the cell phone spam and take your privacy back.

Green Dimes

One of the easiest ways that identity thieves can use to collect personal information about their next potential victim is by stealing mail from the mailbox. We receive credit card offers, insurance discount offers and many other unwanted special offers through the mail and in the wrong hands this junk mail can be the beginning of one heck of a good time at your expense. Use GreenDimes to put a stop to junk mail by doing it yourself or by signing up for the premium service ($20.00) and have an experienced GreenDimes representative take care of the problem for you, if you do not have the time to do it yourself.

Catalog Choice

Help save the natural resources and the environment by simply putting a stop to unwanted paper catalogs that you no longer want to receive in your mailbox. Millions of trees can be saved and your privacy can be yours once again.

Avast!

Stop potential viruses and worms from activating and opening back doors for hackers to snoop around and potentially steal your private personal information that you have stored away on your computer’s hard drive. Avast! Is one of the best and easiest antivirus programs available on the Internet and it’s 100% free for home users to use.

ZoneAlarm

The Internet would be much more secure if everyone using it would install a reliable firewall on his or her computer. Many times viruses and worms are spread from an effected computer to other computers that it comes in contact with and hackers can more easily gain access to an unprotected computer than they could if trying to access a computer with a firewall. Protect yourself and others that you come in contact with on the Worldwide Web by downloading and installing a firewall that will better protect your private information that you have stored on your computer and possibly prevent damaging viruses and worms from being planted on your computer’s hard drive by a sneaky hacker.