Consumers interested in protecting their privacy, and preventing identity theft need to be careful of the systems they leave their information. They should monitor and manage where their name is online. Any identity theft could lead to poor credit ratings and bankruptcy concerns.
Google Voice, available by invitation, lets people access voicemails online from email inboxes.
Those leaving messages on people's phones should be careful of what they say when what they say can be turned into transcripts on the receiver's email account easily forwarded to other people. For example, do not leave any personal identifiable information such as social security numbers. If you must provide personal information to someone, wait to speak with a live person.
Google Voice sends a user an email notification when the user has a new voicemail. The link points to a web page that displays only that particular message. The Google Voice Blog indicates that the web address for that unique message is almost impossible to guess, but on October 19, 2009, the tech blog Engadget shared that Google accidentally indexed voicemails from Google Voice into public search results. Google says it fixed the issue, but users are still free to copy the unique URL from the email notification, and publish it on a public website, allowing search engines, like Google, to index it.
This comes at the heels of other privacy issues involving Google services. In August 2009, Rosemary Port, a blogger behind "Skanks in NYC," filed suit against Google for revealing her name to model Liskula Cohen who alleged defamation for postings made by Port. Users should take more care to read terms of use for online activities.
Contact a bankruptcy counsel to learn more on how to be vigilant in preventing privacy invasion. Consumer credit issues arise from not being attentive to preventing identity theft.
