What kind of personal information should I avoid giving out?

What kind of personal information should I avoid giving out?

Robert Siciliano (Identity Theft Expert and CEO) gives expert video advice on: What are the most common kinds of low-tech identity theft?; What kind of personal information should I avoid giving out?; What are some of the ways my identity can be stolen? and more...

Well, unfortunately, in today's day and age, our social security number has become very valuable to just about any business that you're doing business with. Your name, your address and your phone number more than likely are going to have to be given up - for example, when you open up an account at a utility, at a video store and so on. When you go into certain establishments, they may ask you for your social security number, but you may not actually have to give it to them. But they still may require it, but they really don't know why. The unfortunate fact is our social security number has become our primary identifier, and is being requested by many institutions, many establishments that simply don't need it, but again, they're just so accustomed to getting it. It's important that you determine when it is and isn't appropriate to give out those numbers. Again, your social is your primary identifer. If it's absolutely not necessary, find out if it's not. There may be situations when you might actually have to give up those numbers in order to do business with that organization. For example, when you go to your doctor's office, more than likely you're going to have to give up your social security number. But when it comes to opening an account at the local video store, I would fight them on that. They really shouldn't have to have those numbers. If they're not going to be doing a credit check on you, I would resist giving out those numbers.