Use A Safe Address As Your Home Address

The other day I got a call from a client of mine who lives in Forest Hills.  He mentioned that someone broke into his car and stole his GPS and wanted to know if he had anything to worry about. Aside from mentioning that when he isn’t using the car that he should hide his GPS I asked what address he put as his home address for his GPS. He mentioned that he did not put an address there and always goes to address history to find his home address when he wanted directions to get back home.  I told him that he can put his home address where the menu allows you to but told him that he should not use his actual home address since a thief or other unauthorized user of his car can get his actual address. I suggested he use the address of his local post office, supermarket, etc so if a thief, parking garage attendant, etc tried to get this information that they would not  get it from his GPS. While he lived in an apartment and his immediate area in Forest Hills is almost all apartments, why make it easier? Does he park in a garage? Does he leave an extra set of keys in the car to his apartment? Does he have an integrated garage door opener? Just use a different address.

Think about this for a minute.  For arguments sake you leave your keys with a parking attendant. Unfortunately too many people also leave their house keys as well. The attendant if he desired, could go to your GPS and get your home address. It would not be difficult to also get a copy of the keys on your key chain.  Do you see where I am going with this?

But a GPS is not the only place where a potential thief has access to your address.  A new feature of Google Maps allows you to store your home address in settings. I have the Google Maps application on my smartphone. If I am looking for directions from my home on my smartphone I do not have to type in my home address I just select “Home”. If a thief gets my smartphone, was able to crack my passcode and go to Google Maps they would get my home address except it isn’t my home address but in fact is my local post office. I also will mention here that too many people do not password protect their smartphones.  As a matter of fact a recent article mentioned that Marissa Mayer the CEO of Yahoo admitted that she does not use a passcode on her smartphone. If she doesn’t then who else also doesn’t?

Bottom line – for any gadget that is portable or can fall into the hands of someone who shouldn’t have it, make sure the home address you use is not your actual home address. 

If you want to know more about how you can better use your technology safely or other technology issues, I can be contacted at (917) 572-3468 or email me at mike@computerconciergeny.com .

Feel free to join the conversation and post comments and questions on my Facebook page at Computer Concierge NY LLC . There also are tips there to better use your computer, smartphone, iPad and other technology you may have or are thinking of buying.