This site has security measures in place to protect you against the loss, misuse or alteration of the information under our control.

Mindconnection's offices are actually in a windowless cement bunker, below grade, believe it or not! We have restricted physical access to our building, an armed guard on site, an elaborate security system, restricted access to our computers, and a working relationship with the police department in a low-crime area that has additional security measures. So, it's not likely someone will break in and steal information about you. Or survive, if they do.

We do not leave any computer logged in unattended. Further, we use dynamic IP addresses for our Internet access, so every time we log on, we are somebody new--this is very frustrating to a hacker. All this is just for the non-sensitive information.

Our shopping cart information exists at a data center even more secure than our headquarters. We have passed muster with http://www.geotrust.com to have a Secure Socket Layer with our company name on it.

We are also certified by http://www.ScanAlert.com and are listed among their safe shopping sites. Getting the certification is not easy.

Common concerns

People are sometimes concerned about doing transactions online:

• When I enter my information on your forms, is that information safe?
• I worry about sending information over the Internet.
• I feel safer giving information over the phone.

Here are answers to those concerns:

When I enter my information on your forms, is that information safe? Yes. Any browser that changes from an http to an https is encrypting your data. That means your credit card number changes from a usable number to sheer garbage nobody can read without an encryption key.

I worry about sending information over the Internet. If you use a credit card at all, your information goes over the Internet with every transaction. That's because the method of getting credit card data from the terminal (at a restaurant, grocery store, hardware store--it doesn't matter) to the data center where the data are processed is to send it over the Internet. This has been true for a very, very long time.

I feel safer giving information over the phone. If you give your information over the phone, you are adding an unsecured communication layer on top of a secure one. Your browser is secure. Your phone is not.

Companies for whom we provide affiliate links have similar security measures for their sensitive information. We do not partner with MLMs, e-mail spammers, or other scam artists who are out to make a buck rather than conduct their business with the goal of meeting a customer's need in a way that is both moral and ethical.

We realize someone somewhere is capable of breaching any site's security measures. By the same token, someone somewhere is capable of entering a bank and robbing it. That doesn't keep us from doing business with banks.

What about identity theft and fraud?

The majority of the 9.3 million people who reported identity theft or fraud to authorities in 2004 weren't burned over the the Internet.

In fact, 88% were defrauded without the Internet. Most folks are burned by low-tech methods. The most common methods used were dumpster diving (or trash picking) and wallet theft. We have covered preventive methods in previous eNLs (click here).

See also:

• American Institute for Certified Public Accountants: http://www.aicpa.org/index.htm
• Bankrate: http://www.bankrate.com/brm/default.asp
• Fraud.org: http://www.fraud.org/

While many people fear Internet fraud, it simply is not a significant threat to consumers or business customers. One reason why is the quick detection inherent in the electronic world. Another is the electronic world has security measures such as 128-bit encryption--common among secure e-commerce sites (such as Mindconnection). The US Navy tried to break a 128-bit encrypted message, using a supercomputer. After 6 months, they just gave up.

The median loss via electronic fraud or identity theft is $500, and the limit for quickly-reported (or quickly-detected) credit card fraud is $50. Who pays for the remainder of any losses? Online merchants. We merchants have a strong interest in reducing fraud. This helps you, and it helps us. While your personal losses are very limited, we merchants have full liability with zero protection.

But don't use the possibility of your losing $500 as a "reason" to avoid electronic transactions. Consumers who are defrauded by paper means (lifted checks, photographed credit cards, stolen wallets, unshredded receipts recovered from the trash) typically lose $4500 to identity thieves.

If you think the $4500 is bad, compare it to the enormous losses to individuals from dealings with government agencies.

One agency in particular can, without any fear of citizen reprisal, simply steal a person's home or stick that person with an unfounded debt of several decades' wages. This agency has gained the nickname "American Taliban" and is particularly noted for fraudulent activity and destruction of individuals. We won't name the agency here, though you probably already know who they are from the nickname.

It's not the agency per se, but rogue employees of it, who do the dirty deeds. Unfortunately, these rogue employees are unsupervised and cannot be sued, investigated, or punished for their crimes. Thus, they do such things as sell your private information to identity thieves, create false tax debts they then manipulate for personal gain, run scams on small businesses, and steal government property your tax dollars then go toward replacing (source: The GAO).

The only way to stop this is to write to--and call--your Congressman or Congresswoman and to your two senators and ask if they wouldn't mind providing some representation for a change and putting a stop to this criminal activity.

• Identify your Congressional rep:
    http://www.house.gov/writerep/ or http://www.visi.com/juan/congress/
  
• Identify your Senators:
  http://www.webslingerz.com/jhoffman/congress-email.html

This agency is not, contrary to Congressional excuses, needed for tax collection or tax administration. Think about this for just a second, and this truth becomes obvious. They are redundant to city, county, and state organizations that do the same thing. So, why enable them to freely commit crimes?

Ending the billions of dollars of theft against American citizens each year is simple to accomplish. All Congress has to do is go back to the Constitutionally mandated means of tax collection--do it by apportionment. This means the states collect (as they already do), and pay into the Treasury. Federal revenues would increase dramatically, because the theft factor is removed. And, the high costs of funding the thieving organization are eliminated so costs go down. Every business would like to see increased revenue with lower costs. Demand your government do the same.