There is No Safe Place
Ultimately, there is no such thing as safety when it comes to personally identifying information. Any situation where you’re required to provide personal information and any circumstance where someone else knows enough about you to steal your identity is a potential opening for a thief. And there is just no way to protect yourself from every single possibility that might arise.
So, what do you do? Do you just give up? Or do you get belligerent about who you provide information to? Neither. Somewhere in the middle of that is where you should be.
For now, protecting your identity is about using caution in the right places. And since you can never be sure which places are wrong, it’s also about constantly being aware of your identity and how it changes over time. Monitoring your credit reports is one way to do that.
Security companies are working to produce new, better protected methods of identifying yourself. And the government is building legislation to help in that area, too. But we’re not there yet. Technologies still have a long way to go and legislation isn’t keeping up with the changing nature of identity theft.
In the meantime, you’re stuck in the middle. Use every caution you can use. But also be prepared in case the worst happens. If it does happen to you, realize it’s not your fault. Identity theft is a difficult crime to prevent given the identity-centric nature of our world today.