It's None of Your Business is the most consumer-friendly, powerful, and informative book written on protecting and regaining your privacy. It points out not only the problems associated with our loss of privacy, but includes literally a warehouse of strategies and solutions. The book also addresses those most at risk, including women, the elderly, victims of stalkers, and those with significant assets. It contains complete sections discussing what to do in the home, at work, in public, in school, on the Internet, on the phone, at the bank, at a store, using the mail, dealing with insurance companies, travel, and investing. It provides extensive background material showing where the risks are, how to minimize them, and how to develop a plan of action to protect yourself, your identity, your credit, and your family. The author also provides incredible insight into the root causes of the problem, showing government and big business plans for the future in a cash-less society, where the government has instant access to your bank account and big business controls everything you are allowed to purchase. He comments on the collusion between business and government for complete control of your health care, finances, employment, transportation, education, social, and professional life, and even where you live. The greatest value of the book however, is that it is crammed with solutions, from controlling who has access to information about your private life and where you live, to what information goes into the major data banks, to what to do to protect your assets. Strategies are spelled out in layman's terms that everyone can understand. Unlike many books that give out a little information and leave you needing more, this book provides details about how to control the dissemination of every type of personal information you can imagine. It also contains an excellent resource section listing dozens of books, organizations, web sites, and newsletters to keep you informed and to help with your personal plan of action.
Because the author has spent over 15 years in the database consulting business, he is well versed in the potential for errors in huge data files that are kept on everyone. He addresses the problem of finding the files containing your personal data and then how difficult it is to extract information from them whether they be in big business or government agencies' computers. He notes that it is easy to get into a database, but very difficult, if not impossible, to get out of one. He also discusses how difficult it is to correct information that is contained therein. He includes strategies for improving the accuracy of personal data files and ways of stopping the addition of new data into the files. He also includes a discussion of the Y2K computer bug and its impact on the proliferation of inaccurate data. He suggests ways of preparing yourself and your family so that necessary information is available to medical personnel or financial institutions should data be lost or made unavailable because of loss of electricity or other essential services. Because data in these huge files is so important and yet so difficult to monitor, the author provides a wide range of options and strategies to take back control of one's personal information, so that it is accessible to them and truly their own, not subject to the whims and mistakes of large impersonal bureaucracies. He also discusses in great detail how to protect personal data on one's own computer so that it is not available to everyone else and so that it is safe from viruses and other programs that are capable of stealing or altering it when the owner is unaware. He suggests a variety of programs and strategies that anyone can implement at low cost to protect themselves while surfing the Internet or doing other online transactions.
Not only are there strategies for taking back control of personal information, but the author delves into the larger issues of freedom and control. He provides great insight into the inner workings of business and government agencies, showing their true plans and schemes for the manipulation of the consumer. He shows how you can short circuit these plans so that you can lead a life of your own choosing, free from dictatorial controls and constraints. He provides information about private banking, health care, employment, investing, and normal everyday purchases. Because most people are unaware of the myriad of resources out there for providing everyday needs without public disclosure to the world, the author lists dozens of ways the average person can live their life completely normal, but without revealing to the world all the intimate details, thereby maintaining the right to make their own decisions about what is right for themselves and their families. No other book does such a complete job of providing strategies and plans for gaining back control of one's own identity and life.
Larry Sontag, a Washington native and current resident has been a contract database programming consultant for the past 15 years. His clients include small and large businesses alike, from Boeing and NOAA to insurance companies, retail businesses, municipal departments, and nation-wide franchises. Prior to his consulting business, he taught special education, secondary math, and science in public and private schools in New England. He has also developed and led computer application seminars for business personnel along with teaching on the college level. He has a Bachelors degree in Chemistry and a Masters in Education. He is a strong individualist and believer in inherent human rights. As an amateur inventor and inveterate entrepreneur, he loves the thrill of a challenge, and the mastery of new skills or knowledge. He also believes in the power and value of volunteerism. As a former VISTA volunteer and Big Brother, he espouses giving back to society and one's fellow man. He has traveled extensively, especially in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico, but also in Europe and the Caribbean. Favorite recreational interests include skiing, woodworking, hiking, traveling, and tennis.
