Privacy Protection
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Privacy Protection when you Work From HomeWorking at home has tons of positive advantages, but a possible disadvantage can be losing your privacy. Your home is the place where you should always feel safe and secure. If you practice a few steps you can protect your privacy and make sure your home doesn't stop being peaceful just because it became your office. If you don't make efforts to keep your home safe, you could be in for privacy issues. While working at home, everyone knows how to reach you.... at your house. Here are a couple of methods for work at home privacy protection: Don't use your personal telephone line. Get a voicemail telephone number and give that number to everyone except friends and family. Your rarely get sales calls if you do this. And other business associates who have no respect for your privacy won't be able to reach you while you're working from home. A voice mail line might cost about $10/month bu it's worth the price. Keep in mind that your phone number is given out to almost anyone that you call, thanks to the telephone company and 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. If you can't get your phone number blocked, or you need to show your telephone number, purchase a second phone line that does disclose your business telephone number and make business calls from only that phone line. Most people aren't aware that your telephone number is also captured anytime you call an 800 number. There is no way to avoid that except to use your "second" phone line to call 800 numbers. You could use your fax line to make these calls and if someone caller IDs the number, they will be calling your fax line. If you do pick up a lot of phone solicitors 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 is well worth it to maintain your privacy at home. Consider getting an off-site mail box. And not necessarily the one at the post office. Private mail box centers such provide many convenient services that the postal service doesn't, and more importantly, your address will sound more like a street address than a PO box. This is important because when you provide your PO Box address, you usually get a request for your street address or physical location address. And if you provide your street address, you lose your privacy. If you rent a private mail box center for your box, your address will sound more like a real address. After you have your box, you can have ALL mail sent there and use that address for just about everything, including deliveries. There is no reason why any business-related individual should have your personal home address. If you do this, you are taking a giant step towards at home privacy. Even if you don't work at home, you can benefit by using a private mail box center for your mail. Using an off-site mailing address affords you a great deal of security and privacy. 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. Sites that provide more information about work at home privacy protection: Privacy Foundation Computer Privacy |
