Keeping your online info from being swiped

A new Pew Research Internet Project report finds 61 percent of people would like to do more to protect their personal information online, while 37 percent believe they already do enough.

Cyber expert Adam K. Levin, chairman and co-founder of Identity Theft 911, isn't surprised.

"We're living in a 'post-privacy' world now, so it's not surprising that most people want to do more to protect their information online," Levin said. "Breaches have become the third certainty in life, and surveillance is something that we've come to understand that we have to live with, and nobody is really happy about it."

But wanting to do something to protect privacy is one thing, and doing it is another.

"The reality is, it is pretty much impossible for most people," he said. "It's a very difficult process. Privacy is under assault everywhere you turn. Efforts are being made to increase privacy options for consumers, but it's going to take a while, so we have hacking, we have tracking, and people are getting whacked by this."

So is there anything we can do to better protect our information?

Levin said we're living in a sort of digital fishbowl now, so people need to look at all of the different types of personal information they have, then think about all of the different activities they're involved in.

"They should look at where you will be asked for that personal identifying information, and then you have to become more discreet in what you provide, how much you provide, and ask questions about how it's being protected," he said. "It's important to be as aware as possible of what you're doing, where you're doing it, and what kind of information you're giving."

He also said there are things that some of the major websites are doing to better shield their visitors from intrusions, but "most companies are doing everything they can to collect as much information as they can about people, so they can provide more effective advertising. In this country today, with all of the concerns about breaches and cybersecurity, we still have no cyber law and we still have no national breach notification law. We have to be the guardians of our own privacy and realize our world is globalized and interconnected."