The controversial website WikiLeaks has been in the news everywhere recently. It is controversial because of the widespread release of confidential information it caused.
What does WikiLeaks mean for online privacy?
But what does WikiLeaks mean to the average person? If you are not in the military, or part of government somewhere, does it really impact you?
The hundreds of thousands of pages of documents contain lots of communications between countries, military leaders and even corporate leaders. In reality, the release of this information will not have much impact on you and I.
It does highlight, however, how accessible our information is. Each day we leave credit card numbers, contact information and all sorts of personal information at restaurants, gas stations, doctors offices and online.
This information, of course, is supposed to be kept confidential. The reality of the situation, as made apparent by WikiLeaks, is that there are individuals who are able to access even the most secure information.
The fact is that really the only way to keep your information from being distributed is to not give it out. This, of course is nearly impossible in today’s age.
You can, however, monitor things like your bank account and your credit score. While this will not guarantee that your information will not be ‘leaked’, it does help prevent it from being used in a malicious way.
