In these contentious times, those on the front lines in government, judicial and law enforcement positions face serious threats. One tragic example of this occurred in 2017 when a gunman murdered three police officers, having targeted them by researching their home addresses online.
There are a lot of angry people out there.
While the internet still has a wild west, anything-goes reputation, there are laws in place that help protect some public officials and their families.
A California statute (California Government Code Section 6254.21) allows police officers and judges to have their addresses removed from websites.
This is a service Ironwall by Incogni provides. We are currently working with superior courts, justice departments and law enforcement agencies as a legally-contracted agent, to formally request the removal of any personal information from any website in violation of state and federal restrictions. That includes addresses, phone numbers, email addresses, and personal information about their children or other family members that do not live in the same household,
We also provide these clients with a secure email address. Instead of using a free email provider (like Gmail and Yahoo) that will track their activity online and may sell their information to third party data brokers, we supply them with an email address from one of our servers. This will keep their information safe, and it will retain their privacy.
In addition, we offer a mail-forwarding program. Instead of using their home address to sign up or register for something that might be public record, we give them an alternative mailing address, and forward any mail we received for them at said address. This is to avoid having the name attached to their home address appear online.
If you are interested in any of these services, please contact us.
If you’re not sure yet, there are some steps you can take right now that will help to keep you and your family safe:
- Avoid signing up for promotional contests, store newsletters, or other online activities that require you to share any personal information. That information may be shared with third parties and end up online.
- Change the privacy settings on your social media so that only people you know can see it, and minimize the amount of personal information you share with social media websites.
- Use strong and unique passwords on each website. With the increasing amount of personal information being stolen from hacked sites, hackers could use your login information from one website to access other information.
- Use a two-factor authentication for social media sites like Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, Twitter, etc. When you turn this feature on, they will send a security code to the phone number or email that you provided when creating the account. You then enter this code to log in.
Yes, such precautions take a little more time and effort, but these days safety online has never been a more critical consideration.
