The credit card industry imposes mandatory safeguards to which merchants are supposed to adhere in order to protect your personally identifiable financial information. They are known as the Payment Card Industry (PCI) Data Security Standards. Additionally, government regulations exist for the same purpose, for example, the federal Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act (FACTA). In spite of the fact that the penalties for non-compliance can be severe, many merchants lack the discipline to maintain the required vigilance, and some simply don’t have the resources to remain compliant. Thus, even if <I>you</I> practice good security with your data (by burning or shredding credit-card receipts, etc.), the far greater risk comes from these businesses who do not.
There are steps you can take to help. They do nothing to safeguard your data maintained by non-compliant merchants, but they can mitigate the damage if your data is stolen.
- Set fraud alerts with the major credit bureaus.
- Opt out of pre-approved credit card lists.
- Check your credit report.
Read The Full Report, with links to tools to help implement these suggestions.
Read about other ways to Protect Your Privacy
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