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don’t know of anyone who takes such extreme measures. This would preclude the use of a personal email account and would require using a public terminal or borrowing someone else’s computer in order to avoid creating a computer user account with login credentials. Given the frequency of data breaches, I can certainly understand why someone would want to minimize the amount of personal information they enter online. In fact, just last week I received a notice from the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) stating that my Personally Identifiable Information (PII) may have been compromised due to a data breach which took place between May and July of 2019. In order to mitigate any harm due to the release of this information, the letter from DISA stated that they had partnered with an independent civilian agency which would offer me a free year of credit monitoring. Ironically, in order to receive this protection service, the letter stated that I would have to enter additional PII online including my first name, last name, email address, and a verification code included with the letter (DISA, 2020).

This seems like a vicious circle where PII must be entered into another database in order to monitor against possible malicious use of previously entered PII. One might think our hypothetical cyber-hermit would not have to worry about a PII breach, but no doubt others have entered information on their behalf into numerous databases each of which may be at risk to a similar data breach. These databases would include governmental agencies tracking life events (births, health/vaccination records, school transcripts, drivers’ licenses, tax records, etc.). More than likely our cyber-hermit has been employed, had a bank account, owned a credit card, signed a lease, etc. All of this information would also have been entered into a database.

The bottom line is that, in theory, minimizing our online footprint is a good practice but in reality there already exists a wealth of personal information which we have little to no ability to control. Sadly, there is no escape for a cyber-hermit. In order to minimize the damage caused by a potential data breach, our cyber-hermit would be wise to give up some PII in order to gain protection against the misuse of existing PII entries.

DISA (2020). Notification letter on the availability of a credit monitoring in the wake of a data breach. [Personal Correspondence].