John Muir Health Loses Patient Data

On Friday April 9, I received the dreaded letter from John Muir Health; "We are writing to notify you of a recent incident at John Muir Health that involves the potential loss of your personal information." Yes, as the founder of MasqMe (http://www.masqme.com), I received a letter stating that my identity was stolen. What's sad about this is that millions of people have received dreaded letters like this all the time.

The good news is, we never provided our Social Security Numbers to them. So, our personal information is safe.

On our first visit to John Muir Health, one of the first things they wanted was our Social Security Numbers. But because we're so identity theft conscious, we did not provide it. Just weeks later, we received the letter.

There is absolutely no reason for health agencies to obtain our Social Security Numbers. So, as a free tip, when you're asked for yours, just say "I don't give it out."

For more tips and identity theft prevention tools, join MasqMe, the Identity Masquerade at: http://www.masqme.com.

MasqMe protects you from identity theft.