Protecting your Privacy by Being Public

The world has turned upside down in the past 15 years - the time since the internet started becoming a household word and then requirement.

It used to be that it was all but impossible for someone to steal your identity without actually visiting your house or your bank, government offices, etc. Today it is all but impossible to stop someone from impersonating you; except maybe by you becoming very public and inviting people to ensure you really are you...

Recently I've started signing up for the larger social sites. I'm doing this so that I proactively inhibit others from impersonating me. I'm also finding all sorts of people I know who are signing up now too - people I honestly thought would already be members of Facebook or Twitter or whatever, or people I NEVER would have dreamed might become part of such networks because they know about the privacy issues that have been raised with them.

But I'm becoming convinced that it is only through such very public and publicly vetted sites the we will be able to guard our financial and fiscal lives.