Invisible Privacy | Online Privacy

I will not list the variety of legal reasons for which you may suddenly wish to change your license plate number. I will, however, list a recent example that involved one of my consulting clients. (Names have been changed.)

David White spent a long evening at the home of Maria Flores, an attractive young Mexican widow who lives in a village nearby. His beige Camry was parked in her driveway.

When the time came to leave, David opened Maria’s front door, snapped on the outside light, and spotted two men at the back of his car. One was holding a flashlight and the other had a pad and pencil in his hand. David yelled and reached into his jacket as if to withdraw a handgun. Both men fled. He called me at sunrise the next morning and asked me what to do.

“I need to use my car today but these guys have got my license plate number!”

"It can't be traced, David." (Following my instructions, it was titled in the name of a New Mexico LLC with a ghost address.)

"But these guys and their pals will be watching for it!"

“I'll meet you down at the licensing bureau when they open,” I said. "You'll get a new plate that shows you contribute to a law enforcement memorial. You’ll pay an extra $40 a year, but you get the plate right away.”

I keep a drawer full of decals and bumper stickers for every occasion, and I selected one before heading out to meet David. His car now has a new license plate with a silhouette of some law enforcement officers on the left side, and also a prominent decal in one corner of the rear window:

FRATERNAL ORDER OF POLICE
2009
ACTIVE SUPPORTER

(How David arranges to meet with Maria in the future will be up to him. My duties ended with the decal and the plate change.)

Labels: consulting, ghost address, license plate, license plate privacy, NM LLC, tracing a license plate, vanity plate

Let's assume that a PI firm is on your trail, employed by a law firm with unlimited funds. They are after your list of sent e-mails (encrypted or not) and they use illegal associates who are skilled in computer theft.

I myself do not send confidential e-mails. (For that, I use snail mail). Nevertheless, I do take steps to protect my computer files as a general practice. First, I travel with an Asus Eee netbook which weighs about 3 pounds and has a six-cell battery with a nine-hour life. It's easy to carry in a slim shoulder bag so I often take it with me when I leave the room. Otherwise, it fits into most room safes. (I just took the picture shown here while meeting with a client for a consultation at the Encore in Las Vegas.)

If your hotel room does not have a safe, then you may wish to travel with a suitcase that has combination locks. Slip your laptop into the suitcase before you leave the room, and lock it.Or, if the room contains a tall piece of furniture (such as is used to house the television set), lay the laptop up there when you're away from the room. Maids, when cleaning a room, can sometimes be fooled into letting a stranger posing as the room's occupant slip into the room. The excuse will be something like "I forgot to pick up my laptop." However, when a quick glance around does not reveal it, the intruder may assume you have taken it with you.

Protecting your computer at the airport presents a different series of dangers and may--if enough interest is shown--be the subject of a future post.

Labels: computer protection, computer theft, consulting, room safe, safe travel