Mal Fletcher comments

1. Be very careful giving out personal information if requested online or by phone. If you get a phone call from someone claiming to be a representative of your bank, for example, don't share security information on your credit cards or the like. No bona fide bank or lender will ever ask you for this information in this way.

2. Where possible, in restaurants and shops, try to keep your credit card in sight at all times when paying the bill. Many restaurants now will use hand-held scanners, so that you can pay your bill at the table; the card never has to leave your sight. This is much better than having a staff member take your card away for several minutes, as copies of cards can be made without too much fuss.

3. Don't use public computer terminals to enter very personal information, such as credit card numbers. By all means, use the web for payment, but only on personal computers.

4. Be very wary about information you enter in social networking sites and the like. A good rule is: don't enter anything you wouldn't want a close friend to know about you. Whatever you add to your "digital identity print" remains there forever. Employers may use this information in place of your approved CV. And the more information there is about you online, the easier it is for criminals to build up patterns based on your lifestyle.

ID theft - or credit card fraud - is often most dangerous when it involves small, seemingly innocuous amounts of money which basically line up with your normal lifestyle choices.

You may easily notice several thousand dollars missing from your account all at once, but you may not notice small amounts spread over time which look much like those you would normally use.

5. Be aware of basic government legislation and the rules set by consumer and other watchdogs in your area or nation. Granted, none of us has time to read through huge swathes of legal jargon, but it pays to be aware of our basic rights.

For example, if companies keep badgering you with junk mail or junk phone calls about their products, you usually have the right to remove yourself from their contact lists. Remember: the onus will be on you to put a stop to this. Usually, if you don't make a stand, you will continue to receive unwanted material.

6. Don't stop using cash. We're all reliant on credit cards these days - and there's nothing inherently wrong with that. Yet we're diving headlong toward a zero cash economy, despite the benefits of using cash when it comes to debt reduction and privacy.

Studies are showing that people who overspend are less inclined to face up to their problem when they are dealing only with digital money - credit cards and the like. They can't see the value of their spending in terms of anything tangible, like cash-in-hand.

Cash is much more 'secure' than cards, too. If someone steals cash from you, that's painful enough. But at least the thief will not be able to defraud you further, using your cash to gain and use personal information about you or your lifestyle.

The bottom line is this: unless we each try, in small but important ways, to guard our privacy, we will continue to see it eroded. And without privacy, we are not at liberty to make the righteous choices that underlie good living.

Without privacy, we are unable to fully explore relationships. Relationships are only possible when we choose to be open and vulnerable with specific individuals. When openness is something forced upon us from outside, free relationships become impossible.

Unless we guard our privacy, we will surrender to other human beings the rightful place of God in our affairs.

According to the Christian New Testament, God has delegated certain limited powers to secular authorities, so that we may live in peace; when authorities step out of those bounds, they attempt to control things only God can control, while abdicating responsibility for other things they could very well change for the better.