Protecting your Privacy when you work at home.

Taking just a few extra steps and a small bit of planning, you can protect your precious peace of mind and privacy and make sure your home doesn't stop being your refuge just because it started being your workplace.

When you had that old office job you hated, you were always able to leave it completely when you went home. The enamored co-worker couldn't follow you home. Neither could the bitter back-stabber whose promotion you got, the workaholic boss who'd love you bring you stacks of papers on his way home, or the disgruntled employee that just got fired because you caught him ripping off the company. When you left, you left. In the worst of cases you could even quit your job if you felt you needed to get away from the office that badly. But how do you 'quit' when you work at home? Sell your house?

If you don't take steps to avoid it, when you work at home everyone from the Fed Ex delivery person to the disgruntled employee you had to let go, even emotionally unstable vendors and customers, all know how to reach you.... at home.

Take these steps to protect your privacy at home:

Rule number one. Get an off-site mail box. And not necessarily the one at the post office. Private mail box centers provide many convenient services that the postal service does not, and more importantly, your address will sound more like a street address than the P.O. Box. That can be very important. When you give a someone your "P.O. Box" address, the situation just seems to beg for them to demand your "real" address. Whoops. There goes your privacy. When you rent a private mail box center for your box, your address will sound more like a real address. "180 Liberty Avenue, #200" sounds a lot better than "P.O. Box 15300". After you have your box, you can have ALL mail sent there and use that address for just about everything, including deliveries. There is absolutely no reason why any job or business-related individual should have your personal home address. You've take a huge step towards protecting your refuge. And there are other personal benefits, as well. Suppose your car is stolen, or your purse or wallet. Once someone has that, they also have your home address unless you've gotten a box. Think for a moment how you'd feel if someone got your purse (with your home address on any of several documents inside it) and your keys. Anyone, whether they work at home or not, can benefit from using a private mail box center for their mail. In general, using an off-site mailing address affords you a great deal of security and privacy. TIP: When selecting a private mail box center, try to avoid the ones that are located in strip malls. You may end up with a mailing address like "140 E. Main Ste, Ste 437 PMB 324. Another friendly tip: You're going to see the people who run these shops frequently when you get your mail. If they have a poor attitude, find someone that will cheer you up when you get your mail, not drag you down.

The U.S. Postal Service has passed many privacy-attacking rules concerning the use of these boxes. Postal rules make it very difficult for you to forward your mail if you wish to change addresses, and they may even prevent you from receiving mail at all if people don't address your mail "just right". Big brother is also collecting, computerizing and monitoring information about the users of these types of boxes, for the purpose of reducing mail fraud.

A private mail box can cost between $8.00 and $32.00 per month depending on the size. Another handy feature to look for when searching for your mail box center is whether or not you can access your mail 24 hours a day.

Rule Number Two. Never give out or use your personal telephone line. For real privacy, get a voicemail telephone number and give that number to everyone except close friends and family. You will almost never get telephone sales calls at home if you do this. Plus, vendors and other business associates who have no respect for your privacy will never be able to reach you at home. You will never risk a business-related call after hours or prank phone calls from any emotionally-unstable person you dealt with in the course of your work.

A voice mail line might cost about $10/month and it's well worth it. I enjoy mine immensely and often feel very smart for having it.

Remember that your telephone number is given out to almost anyone that you call, thanks to one of Big Brother's best friends, the telephone company and their multi-billion-dollar revenue producing feature, Caller ID. You should take the steps through your telephone company to block your number if you use your personal phone to make business-related telephone calls. Your telephone company may try to charge you for this service unless you have a compelling reason why you need it, in which case they may give it to you free. People who have stalkers or violent ex-spouses, for example, need this feature for their security. If you can't get your phone number blocked, or for business reasons you need to show your telephone number, (many people have the other feature... the "I won't accept anonymous calls feature), install a second phone line that does disclose your business telephone number and make business calls from that line only.

Most people aren't aware that your telephone number is also captured anytime you call an 800 number. We don't know of any way to avoid that except to use your "second" phone line, or your dedicated fax line, to call 800 numbers. If you use your fax line to make these calls and someone computerizes the number, they'll be calling your fax line. You can also give that number out to anyone else who you don't want calling you.

If you do pick up a lot of phone solicitors or prank calls on your second line, it may be a lot easier to change that phone number than your personal number. Taking these steps may cost a little bit, but it's a lot cheaper than selling your house.

If you follow the guidelines here, you can deal with hundreds of people each week while you work at home and yet still protect the privacy of you and your family.

For more information about our rapidly-disappearing civil liberties and privacy, contact these privacy-related websites:

http://epic.org

http://www.privacyfoundation.org/

http://www.privacy.org/pi/

Center for Democracy and Technology, http://www.cdt.org/

http://www.computerprivacy.org/

http://www.gilc.org/

If your privacy is something you value (and who doesn't!) MAKE YOUR VOICE HEARD. A privacy site that helps you send online "opt out" notices to your financial institutions, as well as other tips for protecting yourself is located at:

http://www.privacyrights.org/