Private Information Alert

 What is a Private Information Alert?

A Private Information Alert appears when you attempt to send protected information to a Web site that does not use secure, encrypted communications, or when you send protected information in email, an email attachment, or an instant message.


 What triggered this alert?

You attempted to use to send information in the [category name] category to [Destination].


 Additional Information

Not all Private Information Alerts are indications of trouble. Some Web sites use random strings of numbers or text to create URLs (Web addresses) for dynamic Web pages. These random strings may match your private information and trigger Private Information Alerts.

For example, if your credit card number ends in 1234 and you have marked 1234 as private, you may be alerted if you visit a Web page that includes 1234 as part of its URL.

Private Information Alerts can also be triggered by online searches. For example, if you have entered Washington as part of your private address, you will be alerted if you type Washington in a search engine.
 What should I do?

You can permit or block this information from being sent.

If you permit it, the information is sent as-is. If you select this option, a malicious user may be able to intercept this information. If you block it, the results depend on whether you are using the Web, an instant messenger, or email.

  • Web
    Privacy Control replaces the private information with asterisks (*). This is more secure, but it may cause problems with some Web sites.

  • Instant messenger
    Privacy Control replaces the private information with asterisks (*).

  • Email
    Privacy Control deletes the message. If your email program saves outgoing mail, you can open the Sent or Out folder, edit the message, and re-send.
 How can I reduce the number of these alerts?

If you receive frequent false alarms about private information, your private information entries may be too general. You can reduce the number of alerts by making your information more specific. For example, instead of using the last four digits of your credit card, you may want to use the last six digits to reduce the chance that a Web site may include these numbers in a dynamic URL.