My digital footprints are everywhere, your digital footprints are everywhere and they are left for anyone to follow. I make a phone call with my cell phone, I send an email message, I surf the Net, I buy stuff on a credit card, I get loyalty points with my other plastic cards and guess what-these are all stored in computers all over the world. Do I know which computers-not a snowball's chance in $#@!. Do I know who is watching for my footprints, in general I can guess. It's anybody who has the time and the knowledge to know where to look. Soon "privacy" will just become a 7 letter word for those who don't have it. I guess what I am trying to say is that privacy is an illusion. And we have to trust those who have our information will not use it in an inappropriate manner.

Anything that we say or do electronically, that includes sending email messages, chatting online, using newsgroups and basically surfing the Net is being recorded and stored. If you think that you are protecting yourself by using a free email account like Yahoo or Lycos, think again. Each time you send an email message using Yahoo, your IP address (the one that is assigned by your ISP to you) is sent along with the email message. No anonymity here. If you receive email in your free email or ISP account and its a HTML message with graphics you have probably received a "web bug". A web bug is a small graphic inside your email message that phones home and tells whoever what your real IP address is. It's a dirty little trick and downright larcenous.

The bottom line is protect your IP address just like you would protect your social security number. Don't willingly give it out to anyone who asks.