In a society where sharing mundane details of your personal life is the norm, you may be doing yourself more harm than good. Here are a few tips to help keep your personal information safe from ID thieves.

Criminals can acquire personal identification through a number of different privacy breaches. Typically, the perpetrators get the information directly from victims by fraudulently gathering information via trash piles, theft of personal documents from homes and vehicles, or—more brazenly—by pickpocketing or purse snatching.

While no one can guarantee they won’t become a victim of identity theft at some point, there are a few ways to help thwart would-be title takers.

Omit. The risk of ID theft can be mitigated partially by not offering too much personal information online or over the telephone. Many companies have a standard contact form that asks for a plethora of personal information. Often, many of these fields are not required but get completed anyway. A good rule here is offer only the information needed to complete a specific task at hand. Social Security cards should not be kept on one’s person and the number should not be filled out on medical or other forms not related to employment.

Destroy. Simply enough, destroying personal information keeps it out of the hands of criminals. A shredder is invaluable for getting rid of all documents. A word of warning: don’t throw the shredder’s wastebasket away without dividing it among a few different outgoing trash bags. A desperate criminal can—and will—piece together bits of information if they must.

Secure. When filling out a form online make sure that it’s on a secure and encrypted page. Double-check the web addresses and if it doesn’t begin with https (note the “s” on the end), it’s not a secure site. Also, PCs should be set at the highest possible security setting to guard against malware or invisible phishing schemes.

In recent years, many commercially available ID theft protection services have become available. These may offer some level of protection but cannot guard 100 percent against all forms of identity theft.

Relocating to a new city, state or country is a big decision that should be approached with caution and therefore deserves some serious consideration. Whatever your reasons to relocate may be, ask yourself some questions and then give them realistic answers. Here are a few that may help you decide whether relocating is a good idea.

1. Will I Find A Job?

Employment trends vary from city to city. Make sure the new city offers plenty of job opportunities in your field. Check online and local job openings or contact the companies directly.

2. Is the Region Affordable?

The cost of living is different from place to place. Consider the cost of real estate, food, gas, utilities and rent. Find out what salary you can expect to earn and then do your calculations.

3. What Environment Can I Expect?

If you decide to move from a small town to a metropolitan city, the environment at work and in traffic can be very different. Big cities move at a faster pace than small towns which may be more laid back.

4. What About the Climate?

If you are used to living in a place where warm temperatures and sunshine are your constant companions, you may have a hard time getting used to freezing climates. Also consider natural disasters such as earthquakes, tornadoes, and hurricanes. Figure out what type of environment makes you feel good and happy.

5. What Will My Daily Commute Be Like?

In some cities a long commute to work is part of life. Sitting on freeways for long periods of time is completely normal. People accept it and get used to it. In other cities people rely mainly on public transportation to get them to and from work. Think about what you prefer and what you are most comfortable with.

6. Can My Partner Find A Job?

It is probable that your spouse or partner will need to find a job too. Check the opportunities for your significant other or this move may not be right for you.

7. What Work Environment Can I Expect?

Your work environment will dictate everything from your work attire to how you greet and communicate with clients. Usually, bigger cities tend to have a more formal work environment than smaller towns. If you don’t like wearing a suit and tie to work every day, you should give this some thought.

Over the holidays Facebook changed their privacy settings, and in an unfortunate habit – they did it without allowing users to “opt in.” That means that whether Facebook members want the new privacy controls or not, they were automatically changed. And although they are a tiny bit easier to navigate, it still takes some work to reset everything. So, the staff of Interviewing Experts wants to help Facebook users to control what the world sees in their time line.

A Facebook time line is where member activity shows up. For instance any new status update, photos, photos that members have been tagged in, posts that members have been tagged in or Spotify listens show up there. Those settings can be accessed from the Facebook privacy setting page, allowing members to keep unwanted updates from showing up on their time line.

One of the questions that users often have is, “Who can see what I post?” The way to determine that is by clicking on “Public,” “Friends” or a custom network. However, in our opinion, that setting really isn’t as powerful as it should be. The best way to manage privacy settings is to click on the one next to the comment box for each item. But beware if the “Public” option is clicked on for a status update, it will default to that in the future. If something is of a personal nature, make sure to manually click it to “Friends.”

If a Facebook member has any older posts that were set to “Friends of Friends” or “Public” those can be changed from the status update box as well to “Friends” for higher privacy.

If a user wants to see what they have been tagged in, he or she should go to the Activity Log. There they can see what’s been updated to their profile and/or what they’ve been tagged in. From there, users can decide what they want on the time line and also who can see his or her individual updates.

Finally, Facebook will occasionally use members’ information as advertisements to their friends. For instance, if someone has “liked” a business or product, friends can see the user’s name under the advertisement. To change that, edit the “Third Party Sites” as well as “Ads and Friends” settings to “no one.”

Facebook is a great tool for keeping touch with friends and family, but it’s important to maintain as much privacy control over the account as a person wants.