A:  Yes, Identity Guard does have a toll-free phone number you can call for more information about their product: 1-855-727-5801. Identity Guard customer service representatives are available via that phone number from 8am to 8pm EST Monday through Friday. This is a dedicated line for NextAdvisor readers, so you'll still be able to get the free 30-day trial AND 25% off the subscription price (bringing price down to $14.99/mo) of top-rated Identity Guard TOTAL PROTECTION® when you call in.

A:  Yes, if you sign up for Identity Guard TOTAL PROTECTION® today, you will find out about the lines of credit opened in your name to date. That's because when you sign up for Identity Guard, you'll receive access to your 3-bureau credit report—a summary of your credit history as provided by each of the 3 credit bureaus (Equifax, Experian and TransUnion). Within this summary are all of the credit accounts included in your current credit history as well as the payment history for each account over the last 24 months. You'll also get your credit scores from all 3 credit bureaus for free.

It's important to note that over time, some information does fall off your credit reports. Positive account information remains in your credit report for at least 10 years. Delinquent payment information remains on your credit report for 7 years from the date of delinquency.

We really like Identity Guard as both a credit monitoring and identity theft protection service, and right now they are offering a free 30-day trial and 25% off the subscription price to NextAdvisor readers.

Although the actual stolen passwords were encrypted, it is possible for the hackers to unencrypt them. Zappos advised that if customers use the same password for multiple websites, like Amazon or eBay, those accounts may also be at risk, and they recommended that you change your password on any other web site where you use the same or a similar password. Zappos also expired all 24 million customer passwords for their own website, asking customers to visit Zappos.com and create a new password.

While creating a new password may seem like the end of troubles for Zappos.com customers, the amount of personal information the hackers were able to access is disturbing.  Stephen B. Wicker, Cornell professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering who focuses on networking technology and law has this to say about it:  "Large databases of consumer information can be used for identity theft…..information about a customer can be used to ‘de-anonymize’ other databases on other Web sites, further invading customer privacy. Correlation attacks enabled by such data have been shown to strip anonymity from NetFlix, AOL and other databases that were assumed safe."  Additionally, just by using a customer's email address and some other personal information like their shipping address, identity thieves can run phishing schemes to trick customers into providing more personal information like their password or credit card number.

If you're concerned about the amount of personal information you may have floating around on the Internet, we recommend signing up for a good identity theft protection service. Many of these services will monitor the Internet black market, public records and other locations for the suspicious use of your personal information.  We particularly like Identity Guard TOTAL PROTECTION®, and right now Identity Guard is offering a free 30-day trial and 25% off the subscription price to NextAdvisor readers.

Not sure what your credit score is or just want to monitor your credit more closely? Identity Guard TOTAL PROTECTION®, our top-rated credit monitoring service, is offering NextAdvisor readers 25% off, plus a free 30-day trial. Identity Guard provides 3-bureau credit monitoring, free 3-bureau credit scores at sign up and a free Internet Security suite with your membership. To learn more about Identity Guard and to get this deal, click here.

Most people aren't aware that identity thieves actively target minors, stealing their Social Security numbers and reselling them for fraudulent or illegal use. Common identity theft opportunities that thieves exploit include such seemly safe activities like school and sports registration. Once the theft occurs it can be undetected for years and cause substantial damage. That's where kID Sure comes in – it can help detect the exposure of your child's personal information and alert you when it occurs.

kID Sure requires the enrollment of the child's guardian or parent in our top-rated Identity Guard's adult identity protection service first. Once you've signed up for Identity Guard you can add kID Sure to your account for just $4.99/month per child. Right now NextAdvisor readers can get an exclusive 25% off Identity Guard and a free 30-day trial, bringing the price down from $19.99/month to just $14.99/month. That means you can protect yourself and your child for the reduced price of $19.98/month ($14.99/month + $4.99/month).

A:  Yes, Identity Guard TOTAL PROTECTION® monitors the Internet black market for any bank account numbers you register.  It also scans for the fraudulent use of your credit cards, Social Security number, address and other personal information.  Although Identity Guard automatically starts monitoring the SSN, address and credit card you sign up with, you'll need to manually enter your bank accounts and any other credit cards into your account.  Make sure you do so, because if you don't register this additional information you won't be taking full advantage of the comprehensive Identity Guard service.

In addition to proactively monitoring for your personal information, Identity Guard also provides 3-bureau credit monitoring, free 3-bureau credit scores at sign up and a free Internet Security suite with your membership.  Right now Identity Guard, our top-rated identity theft protection service, is offering NextAdvisor readers a special deal – a free 30-day trial and 25% discount.  That means you'll get 3-bureau credit scores and a public records report for free when you sign up for the trial, and they are yours to keep even if you cancel.  You'll also get a whopping $5.00 off, bringing the monthly price down from $19.99 to $14.99.  All-in-all a pretty darn good deal.

A:  Identity Guard TOTAL PROTECTION® credit scores were very, very close to FICO credit scores in our (non-formal) testing among 8 different people.  Identity Guard uses the CreditXpert brand of credit scores which we believe is a good approximation of what your FICO score might be.  Banks typically use FICO brand credit scores, but this is not always the case.  It is impossible to predict which credit scores your particular bank uses, but a good way to find out is to call and ask them.

If you're working on improving your credit scores, Identity Guard includes a useful credit analyzer tool that lets you try out different financial actions to see how they might affect your credit score.  For example, you can experiment with making loan payments, transferring balances and opening or closing credit accounts.  The credit analyzer tool will take your existing credit score, factor in the change and simulate what your new credit score would be. This is a pretty nifty way to help determine which actions may help your credit score the most.

Right now Identity Guard is offering a free 30-day trial, during which you'll get free 3-bureau credit scores,  a free public records report and free Zone Alarm Internet Security Suite.  Even if you cancel during the trial period, you'll get to keep all these goodies free of charge, so it's a great time to try Identity Guard out and see if you like it.

A:  Identity Guard® TOTAL PROTECTION will walk you through the steps to set a fraud alert at each of the 3 credit bureaus.  Identity Guard will not help you set up credit freezes. You can always do this on your own although there is typically a cost that varies on a state by state basis.

If you're interested in an identity theft service that will set credit freezes for you, Trusted ID IDEssentials is an excellent choice. Trusted ID features an add on to their service called CreditLock that will do this on your behalf. There is a cost of $44.95 to lock your credit reports with all 3 bureaus and $39.95 to unlock them, but you would have to pay even if you did it on your own. Trusted ID is one of our top reviewed identity theft protection services and offers a free 14-day trial to NextAdvisor readers.

Before you move forward, it's a good idea to distinguish between what a fraud alert and a credit freeze are.  A fraud alert is set for 90 days and asks the 3 major credit bureaus to verify your identity by using "reasonable policies and procedures" prior to opening an account in your name.  Typically this means they will call you to confirm.  A credit freeze completely prevents any new creditors from being able to access your credit report for any reason.   To learn more about the differences between credit freezes and fraud alerts see our Fraud Alert and Credit Freeze Guide.

A:  No, you don't.  Our top-rated Identity Guard TOTAL PROTECTION® provides both comprehensive identity theft protection and thorough 3-bureau credit monitoring.  Upon signup for their free 30-day trial, you'll also receive free 3-bureau credit scores, a free public record report and free Zone Alarm Internet Security Suite software – yours to keep even if you cancel during the trial period.  We like Identity Guard so much, we even rated them #1 in our identity theft protection reviews and credit monitoring reviews.

A:  Good question!  A couple of our top-rated identity theft protection services offer protection for your children too.  Most people don't realize it, but children are easy prey for identity thieves because their lack of credit history means they usually don't have any credit records.  Therefore, the occurrence of credit-related identity theft can go undetected for quite some time. And even if a child does have a credit report it typically isn't checked until after they turn 18, which means fraudulent activity could have happened without anyone being aware of it. That's why it's a good idea to subscribe to an identity theft protect service that will help protect your child.

Both of these services we discuss below are highly recommended by NextAdvisor, and are great choices to help protect your children from identity theft.  They both also offer free trials to NextAdvisor readers, so you can give them a test drive without reaching into your pocketbook.

TrustedID's IDFreeze will protect your entire family, including your spouse and children, for just $13.46 per month (with annual prepay). The only requirement is that everyone has to be living at the same address. IDFreeze will monitor the Internet black market for your child's Social Security number, bank accounts, name and address. It also monitors the Internet and public records for any changes to or misuse of your child's name, address, or Social Security number. In addition your child will be given an Identity Threat Score which provides a gauge of his/her individual risk level.  Right now Trusted ID is offering NextAdvisor readers a free 14-day trial, so you can test drive it free of charge and see if it's a good fit.

Identity Guard TOTAL PROTECTION® features an add-on service called kID Sure. kID Sure monitors the Internet black market for your child's Social Security number (SSN) and registered bank account numbers, scans public records for you child's SSN and name, and provides ongoing monitoring of applications submitted using a child's data. It also features ID Risk Assessment^® of your child's current risk level for identity theft.  Although kID Sure requires that you sign up for Identity Guard TOTAL PROTECTION first ($14.99/mo with NextAdvisor discount), it's just an extra $4.99 per month per child. Identity Guard is extending NextAdvisor reader a 30-day free trial of their TOTAL PROTECTION service, so you can see if the service is to your liking before adding kID Sure to it (Note: there is no free trial for kID Sure).

Did you know that children can also be victims of identity theft? In fact, they are more attractive targets for identity theft because their credit is usually clean and their identity isn’t as closely monitored as adults’ identity. Thieves can create a whole new identity with just a child’s social security number, and can cause serious problems when the child turns 18 and starts applying for credit cards, students loans or any other type of credit.

Identity Guard’s new kID Sure service helps prevent you child’s identity. kID Sure monitors a wide range of data sources to track your child’s social security number and public records, as well as any applications for cell phones or credit cards. Another interesting feature of kID Sure is the Risk Assessment, which determines the risk factor of your child’s identity. The service is $4.99 and available to new and existing Identity Guard customers, so if you aren’t an Identity Guard customer, read our review here and get an exclusive 18% discount and a 30-day trial.

A: Our top-rated identity theft protection solution, Identity Guard TOTAL PROTECTION® includes free anti-virus, firewall, anti-phishing and anti-spam software from Zone Alarm Internet when you sign up. Your subscription also includes PRIVACYPROTECT® and MOBILE LOCKBOX® technology to help protect you from hackers and thieves attempting to access your personal information and online transactions. We gave customer support a call and found that once you sign up for Identity Guard and download the Zone Alarm software to your computer, only that particular computer will be protected.

If you sign up for an Identity Guard subscription through NextAdvisor, you'll get the discounted monthly price of $14.99, which is a really great deal. Although this is not a "trial" price and there are no immediate plans to change the monthly price, like most other services, Identity Guard cannot guarantee that the price will always stay the same. If they do raise the price in the future, they'll notify you ahead of time via email. Then if you feel the value isn't in it for you anymore you can choose to cancel your subscription. Since it's a monthly subscription you're not tied into any long-term contracts.

We have to say we really like Identity Guard's identity theft protection service because it is the most comprehensive out of all the identity theft services we review. Identity Guard monitors your credit reports at all 3 credit bureaus and includes free 3-bureau credit scores. It also monitors public records for any changes in your name, scans databases for application or Social Security fraud, and monitors the Internet's black market for any use of your credit cards or other personal information. Right now they are even offering NextAdvisor readers a free 30-day trial, so you can check it out and see if it meets your needs. If you don't think it's the service for you, just cancel during the trial period and you won't be billed. You'll get to keep your credit scores and the ZoneAlarm Internet Secuity suite for free, even if you cancel during the trial, so it's a win-win.

Q:  I'm pretty sure my identity has already been stolen.  What can I do about it?

A: We're sorry to hear about this, because we know having your identity stolen can be very stressful. The first thing you should do is follow the comprehensive steps in our What To Do If Someone Has Stolen Your Identity blog post. You should also seriously consider a top-notch identity theft protection service like Identity Guard TOTAL PROTECTION®.

Identity Guard Total Protection provides comprehensive identity theft protection, which will be especially important in a situation like yours. They start with daily 3-bureau credit monitoring, the gold standard for catching any potential identity thieves that may have opened an account in your name. But they also provide extensive fraud prevention measures including monitoring the Internet black market for the use of your Social Security number, credit cards or bank account numbers. In addition they monitor public records for changes to your name, address, license and registrations, criminal records, civil court records and bankruptcy filings.  Identity Guard subscriptions also include free anti-keylogging software, mobile security software and Zone Alarm Internet Security Suite.

Right now Identity Guard is offering a free 30-day trial and 18% off the subscription price to NextAdvisor readers. This means not only do you get free identity theft protection for a month, but you'll also receive free 3-bureau credit scores to boot. All-in-all a great deal from our top-reviewed identity theft protection service.

A: When you join Identity Guard, you'll get all 3 of your credit reports and scores at sign up.  Then you'll get all 3 updated credit scores every quarter as well as updates to your 3-bureau credit reports. The updates to your credit reports are a little different from a full credit report, in that they will only show you what has changed on your report in the last 3 months and are not complete credit reports. Although it's convenient to see just the changes, if the 3 scores and updates to your credit report aren't enough and you need a complete credit report to print out, you can purchase all 3 full credit reports (and 3 updated scores) for $14.99.

If you're interested in a service that provides more frequent updates to your credit reports and scores, consider PrivacyGuard. PrivacyGuard also delivers all 3 credit reports and scores at sign up along with 3-bureau credit report monitoring, but in addition you'll get updated full credit reports and scores every month. Although PrivacyGuard does not provide the same level of full-fledged identity theft protection that IdentityGuard does, at just $14.99 per month after their free 30-day trial it's a still great deal.

Rumors abound that Facebook is now making public contact lists from smartphones that use Facebook Mobile. Although Facebook denies that this is true, a longstanding feature that syncs contacts from your phone to your Facebook account has been discovered by many. This means that Facebook has probably stored every number in your phone on a server somewhere.

You can see the phone numbers of all your contacts, which means that they can probably see your phone number. Regardless of the method Facebook may have used to get your number, here's what you should do:

1. In your phone's Facebook app, tap the Friends icon in the main menu. Then in the upper-right of the screen, click Sync.

2. When you're on Facebook, click on Account at the top-right of the screen. Then click Edit Friends. On the left side of the screen, click on Contacts. You'll see this text on the right: "If you would like to remove your mobile contacts from Facebook, you need to disable the feature on your mobile phone and visit this page." Click to go there, and then click the Remove button.

3. Double-check the privacy settings on your Facebook account to make sure that only the right people are seeing your number. We recommend deleting it completely.

For those worried about protecting their privacy, we recommend identity theft protection. Companies such as Identity Guard, Trusted ID, and LifeLock monitor your credit score and other records and alert you of fraudulent activity. Plus, NextAdvisor offers you a discount!

A: If your identity is compromised while you're subscribed to IDENTITY GUARD Total Protection®, you'll have full (free) access to the ID Theft Recovery Unit (ITAC).  The ITAC will be with you from start to finish, walking you through the steps that need to happen to resolve the issue and helping you get your good name and credit back.  The exact steps vary depending on what type of identity theft event has occurred, but common steps include setting up a case report for you, setting fraud alerts on your account, helping to notify creditors of any suspicious activity and sharing data with law enforcement agencies.  In addition, if it's needed the ITAC will work to have the fraud removed from your credit history.  And if there are any legal fees, affidavits or notary fees involved in resolving the issue, Identity Guard's 1 million dollar loss reimbusement will cover the expenses.

Overall, we think Identity Guard Total Protection is an excellent identity theft protection service.  And right now they are offering NextAdvisor readers a free 30-day trial and a 15% discount, so you can sign up free of charge and see if the service is a good fit for you.

A: First, you've done a smart thing by carefully going through your credit report for potential errors or discrepancies.  Make sure you've gone through all of your 3-bureaus reports from Equifax, Experian and TransUnion and not just one of two, because the information on them can differ. The information on your credit reports is provided to the credit bureaus by creditors, lenders, insurers, employers and other companies with which you may have a financial relationship.  If you find an error, you need to contact the specific credit bureau with the error.  Although this sounds onerous, you can submit a dispute request online.  The links for each of the bureaus are below.

Equifax
Experian
TransUnion

Regarding whether your identity has been compromised, it's possible.  However, it's also possible that it's an honest mistake as street names are often misspelled.  If this is the only error on all 3 of your credit reports and there is no indication anyone has tried to open a credit line under your name, you're probably safe.  But the possibility of identity theft still exists.  Nowadays thieves can use your name and identity to gain access to everything from your medical insurance to a mortgage.

To be safe, it's smart to sign up for an identity theft protection service like Identity Guard TOTAL PROTECTION®. Identity Guard will monitor your 3-bureau credit reports and alert you if change occurs. They will also monitor public records for any changes in your name, scan databases for application or Social Security fraud, and monitor the Internet's black market for any use of your personal information or credit cards. In addition they provide members with free anti-keylogging software, mobile security software and lost wallet protection.  As an added bonus when you sign up for their free 30-day trial you'll get all 3 of your credit scores.

Q:  What is the best identity theft protection company that the Better Business Bureau would recommend?

A: Our top-rated identity theft protection company, IDENTITY GUARD ®, also has an "A+" rating from the Better Business Bureau—their best available grade.  They've also been a member of the BBB since 1996, which says something about their longevity.  Combine this high praise with robust identity theft protection features and you have a very strong product indeed.

Identity Guard starts with daily 3-bureau credit report monitoring and free 3-bureau credit scores.  In addition, they monitor the Internet black market for suspicious or fraudulent use of your bank accounts, credit cards and Social Security number. They also include monitoring of public records for any changes to your name, address, license and registrations, criminal records, civil court records and bankruptcy filings.

Identity Guard also help protect your computer and mobile phone from prying eyes, providing free anti-keylogging software, mobile security software, and Zone Alarm Internet Security Suite. Zone Alarm is a full-fledged Internet security suite that includes anti-virus, anti-spyware,  firewall and anti-phishing capabilities. Zone Alarm by itself is $70, but when you sign up for the free 30-day trial you get to keep it for free.

That's right, Identity Guard is offering a free 30-day trial to NextAdvisor readers, plus an exclusive discount of $3 per month off the cost. This brings the price after the 30 day trial period down to $14.99 per month.  And if you don't feel that Identity Guard is a good fit for you, just cancel during the trial period and you won't be charged a thing.  Plus you'll get to keep your free credit scores and the Zone Alarm Internet Security Suite software.

We couldn't let this news pass by without commenting. This woman has 152 Facebook friends, and she took video showing her getting a sleeve tattoo of profile picture thumbnails of every single one. Although it turned out to be nothing more than an advertising stunt, such a tattoo could raise some serious questions. She claimed to have gotten the permission of all of her friends, but could having your face on somebody's body put your identity at risk?

We say probably not, in this case. The images are pretty small, and no names are given. The biggest problem anyone might have with this tattoo is its lack of clarity!

Another great tip learned from Rep. Weiner: Never take compromising photos of yourself, and definitely never send them to anyone!

So it turns out that Representative Anthony Weiner's (D-New York) Twitter photo scandal wasn't a hack after all. But let it still be a reminder to keep your confidential information safe with identity theft protection services and to change your password!

A: As you mention, Identity Guard TOTAL PROTECTION® provides credit scores from all 3 credit bureaus when you sign up, and updates them on a quarterly basis thereafter. To see your scores, you just need to log in to the Identity Guard member center.

When you sign up for Identity Guard you'll also get your 3-bureau credit reports.  Then you'll get quarterly updates to your credit reports, which is a little different from the full reports you get at sign up. The updates aren't the complete reports, instead they make things a little easier by just including what has changed since your last report update. That way you can quickly scan through and double check any changes. Of course, Identity Guard's credit monitoring alerts you of key changes to your credit reports on an ongoing basis, but it makes sense to take the time to review these changes on a quarterly basis.

In addition you'll get a free public record report when you sign up, and an updated one every quarter. Add to this Identity Guard's identity theft protection features, a 30 day free trial, free Zone Alarm software and 18% off the price and it's a pretty darn good deal that we highly recommend.

Eleven percent of identity theft crimes occur online.

Let's face it: Almost everyone's on Facebook, and if you're not, chances are you'll succumb to social pressure to sign up eventually. It's a great way to connect with friends and family all over the world and easily share your experiences with others. However, it's not a good idea to go sharing personal information willy-nilly.

Facebook has made a number of updates to privacy settings since we wrote this popular post in 2008. So here we've collected an updated list of six ways to manage your privacy on Facebook and keep your personal information safe:

1. Limit the amount of personal information available on your profile.

A poll of Facebook users commissioned by NextAdvisor.com found that 27% of respondents listed their full name, date of birth, phone number, and email address on their Facebook profile. An additional 8% of respondents included all of that information plus their physical address on their profile. Many Facebook users also list other personal data, such as their spouse or significant other's name or birthday. In the hands of identity thieves, that type of information can be dangerous.

For example, an identity thief may be able to use your home address and phone number to submit a change of address form with the United States Postal Service and have your mail forwarded. This would allow access to even more sensitive information in order to open financial or other accounts in your name.

Savvy identity thieves can use contextual information in your profile to hack into online accounts. It can tip them off to potential user names and passwords you may use. Once an online account—whether an email, credit card, or other account—has been accessed, it can cause even further harm. It just gets easier for identity thieves: A recently released Android app can hack Facebook accounts if they are open on the same wireless network! Our recommendation is to limit the amount of personal information that is available on your Facebook profile:

• Never list your full date of birth, phone number, or physical address on your Facebook profile. Your real friends and associates will likely already know this information, so including it on your profile will only increase your risk of being victimized.
• Limit the amount of contextual password clues on your profile pages. Identity thieves know that many people use their birthday, a spouse or significant other's name or birthday, an anniversary date, mother's maiden name, pet's name, or other personal information as passwords on their personal accounts. It is also a good idea to make sure your online passwords don't include these types of personal items.

2. Proactively manage your privacy settings.

There are many components to managing your Facebook privacy settings. But we've broken it down for you here:

Sharing

Facebook's main purpose is sharing. However, like many people, you might have certain things you only want to share with only your networks, your friends, or just a chosen few. Luckily, Facebook makes this easy. When you click "Privacy Settings" under your "Account" tab, you'll see a list of what you share and with whom you share it.

For each shared item, such as "My status, photos, and posts" and "Phone numbers and address," you can choose one of three basic user categories: "Everyone," "Friends of Friends," and "Friends Only." Remember that "Everyone" means pretty much everyone, sometimes including other sites. You'll see the privacy settings that Facebook recommends, but we prefer the conservative "Friends Only" setting on all of your profile information to safeguard your information.

At the bottom of this page is a "Customize settings" link, where you can fine-tune your settings. Perhaps you don't want anyone to be able to view "Places you check in to." So you'd select "Only Me" for that category. If you wish to let your friends know when you're out on the town but want to keep your coworkers out of it, you can choose to block that information only from certain users. If you don't want the world knowing when you're at, say, the doctor's office, we also recommend you uncheck the "Enable" box next to "Include me in 'People Here Now' after I check in." To make sure everything looks right, click "Preview my profile," where you can view your own profile as a member of the general public or as a specific Facebook user.

Connecting

Connecting is not controlled on the Privacy Settings page but on a separate screen you access by clicking "View settings" at the top of the "Choose Your Privacy Settings" screen. By default, your name, profile picture, gender, and networks are visible to everyone.

Set these limits to what you're comfortable with. You could set everything to "Friends only," but you'd cut down on the chances of old friends and co-workers finding you. Instead, set them based on how private you think that information is or should be. For example, never make your high school visible to "Everyone" if you've used "What's your high school mascot?" as a security question on another website. We do recommend setting stricter visibility limits on "See your friend list." Such information could help identity thieves to engage in a little social engineering or get information such as your mother's maiden name (if, you know, your mom is your friend).

We feel the same way with "See your current city or hometown" and "See your likes, activities, and other connections." This publicly viewable information can help phishers and other social hackers target attacks toward you.

Finally, you can also access "Preview my profile" from this page.

Apps and Websites

Go back to the main privacy page, scroll down to the "Apps and Websites" section at the bottom left, and click "Edit your settings for using apps, games and websites."

One of the most useful tools is at the top. "Apps you use" allows you to turn off all applications or remove unwanted or spammy applications. You'll probably be surprised just how many applications you've said "yes" to. If you find ones that look suspicious or you simply don't want anymore, click them to expand. You can then view the last time the app accessed your data or remove the application altogether.

But perhaps most important to your privacy is how your information is used by other sites and apps. Click "Edit settings" next to "Info accessible through your friends." It will bring up a pop-up window that you can use to control which of your information is available to applications, games and websites when your friends use them. We recommend that you uncheck these items.

Next, you can control who can see your game and app activity. This button functions much like the other buttons on the main privacy page.

If you're not wild about the websites you visit knowing a lot about you, edit your "Instant personalization" settings, and uncheck the box at the bottom. This prevents Facebook's select partner sites from accessing the information that you've set as visible to everyone.

Lastly, we recommend that you disable public search. This setting controls whether information you share with everyone shows up in searches on and off Facebook. If someone Googles you, do you want your Facebook profile to show up? If it's a childhood friend, perhaps, but if it's an identity thief, you might think otherwise. There's a small "See preview" link here, too, so you can see how your page would look to someone arriving at your profile from a search engine.

Block Lists

There are many reasons you might want to block a person or application from seeing your Facebook profile. So when you click "Edit your lists" at the bottom center of the main privacy page, you can enter names of your Facebook friends or email addresses of people who are not your friends and click "block user." This means that person cannot be your friend or interact with you on Facebook, except inside apps or games you both use.

You can also block invitations from this screen. Is a friend who lives across the continent spamming you with invites that you can't possibly accept, or does an otherwise nice pal keep inviting you to play FarmVille even though you've declined multiple times? Type the name into the fields to block only their invitations.

Finally, you can view your blocked applications from this page. Blocking an app means it can't contact you or use your information anymore. To block an app, though, you need to go to the app's Facebook page and click "Block app."

Additional Privacy Controls

Facebook gives you still more options for privacy control. Each time you post a status update, link, status update, photo, or video, click the lock icon below it to choose who can see it. Note that this overrides whatever you have set for "Posts by me" in the Privacy settings.

You also now have more control over your apps. By default, they can only see what you've made visible to everyone. If an app needs to access more to operate, they must ask you for permission (via a box that pops up when you add an app), and they are not allowed to ask for more than is necessary for them to work.

The final control is over tagged items. When you're tagged in a photo or video and you want to override the default setting you selected for tags on the privacy page, remove the tag, which will also keep it from showing up on your profile. Remember that this doesn't keep the owner of the photo or video from sharing the picture (sans your tag) with people who aren't your friends.

These are our best suggestions for using Facebook's privacy settings. CEO Mark Zuckerburg maintains that users can expect privacy from Facebook's advertisers. Facebook doesn't sell personal data to its advertisers, but some ads include a Like button, and some or pair a profile picture of a friend who "liked" the ad or company with it to make it more relevant to you. And when you see Facebook content on another website, that site doesn't receive any of your profile information.

Still, with all the data floating around out there and the potential for identity thieves to socially engineer themselves into our lives, consider an identity theft protection service.

3. Only accept friend requests from people you know.

According to another recent Facebook poll commissioned by NextAdvisor.com, 49% of respondents said that they accept some or all friend requests that they receive from people they don't know. What many Facebook users may not realize is that by accepting friend requests from people they don't know, they are potentially opening themselves up to identity theft or related crimes. As a general rule, we suggest that Facebook users only accept friend requests from people that they already know or whose identity they can verify through some other means. Here are some ways to safely add new friends on Facebook:

• When you receive a friend request from people you already know, verify that they are who they say they are by sending them an email or giving them a phone call. It is easy for someone to set up a phony profile under the name of someone you know and trust in order to extract additional information from you.
• If you don't recognize the person who is making the friend request, feel free to ask how he or she knows you by sending a Facebook message before accepting. If you get no answer or a suspicious one, you can investigate further or simply ignore this friend request.
• Some experts believe that social networks like Facebook may become the next target of sophisticated phishing scams designed to steal your online passwords or other personal information. If you receive a friend request or other information over email purporting to be from Facebook, log into your Facebook account directly rather than clicking on any links in the email to verify that the communication is actually coming from the Facebook system.

4. Limit the amount of check-ins and "time and place" data that you expose.

Facebook gives users many opportunities to broadcast their schedule and whereabouts to their friends. Whether it is a simple status update or detailed itinerary, criminals can use information about your current or upcoming whereabouts to victimize you in a number of ways.

For example, if you publicly announce an out-of-town vacation or plans to attend a certain event, criminals can use this information to determine when your home may be most susceptible to a burglary. This could open you up to any number of forms of identity theft or worse. Also exercise caution when you "check in" somewhere using Facebook Places. If you verify that you are at a faraway location, you could endure similar consequences.

In general, we strongly recommend that Facebook users not publish specifics about whereabouts and schedules.

5. Remember that even people you know can be identity thieves.

Unfortunately, several recent studies show that a significant number of identity theft victims know the person who victimized them.

Javelin Research found that a shocking 43% of identity theft crimes are perpetrated by people whom the victim knows, such as friends or family members. Additionally, the most common perpetrators of identity theft against children are the child's parent.

We strongly recommend that, even if you know and trust all of your Facebook friends, you still follow all these tips to prevent yourself from falling victim to identity theft.

6. Consider an identity theft protection service.

Identity theft, both online and in the real world, remains a growing threat to all Americans. We recommend that all consumers consider using a proactive identity theft protection service, such as Identity Guard or LifeLock, to protect their identity.

Each identity theft protection service is different, but most will do the following:

• Monitor your credit report and other personal information for fraudulent use.
• Provide you with identity theft insurance that will reimburse you on costs and expense you incur as a result of being victimized.
• Provide you with copies of your credit report.

You can learn more about the various benefits of identity theft protection services and about the specific services we review by visiting our identity theft protection service guide and comparison.

While social networks like Facebook can be fun and productive services, it is important for users to be aware of the risks that they pose. Taking proactive steps to protect your identity on Facebook will only improve the amount of enjoyment you can get out of the service.

A: Both of our top rated identity theft protection services, Identity Guard TOTAL PROTECTION® and Trusted ID protect your bank accounts and provide computer protection.  When you sign up for these services, you need to take the time to register your bank accounts numbers and credit cards so they can patrol for suspicious activity on either.

Identity Guard and Trusted ID help to protect your computer from fraud with their included computer software.  Identity Guard includes Zone Alarm Internet Security software, a total Internet security suite providing anti-virus, anti-spyware, firewall, and anti-phishing protection with your subscription. Trusted ID includes free anti-spyware software from highly reputable Sana Security with your membership.

Both Identity Guard and Trusted ID are offering free trials if you sign up from NextAdvisor.   Take a look at these and other top rated identity theft protection services to see if they will be a good fit for your needs.

We here at NextAdvisor like to harp on identity theft protection. Why? Because you need it. You never know when, for example, workers at your bank will leak confidential information about your accounts to scammers, resulting in more than $10 million in total losses, which is what happened recently at Bank of America.

Even if you entrust your entire financial life only to big-name companies, this event illustrates why you should take the extra step of getting identity theft protection for yourself and your family to combat fraud. We think that the best companies for ID theft prevention are Identity Guard Total Protection (for the most complete ID theft protection), TrustedID (for families), and LifeLock (for the best value). Click on those links to see our reviews of these services (you'll find even more here), and don't go another day vulnerable to identity theft!

A: If you got your free credit reports at AnnualCreditReport.com, they are completely separate from the reports you would receive from a credit monitoring service.  This means that even though you received your free reports from AnnualCreditReport, you can still sign up for a credit monitoring service like PrivacyGuard and get your credit reports from them too.

In fact, PrivacyGuard is offering a $1 30-day trial to NextAdvisor.com readers, so you'll get 3-bureau credit scores and reports when you sign up for only a dollar.  And, PrivacyGuard also provides monthly updates to all 3 of your credit reports and scores, so you'll always have the latest information.