My 12 Privacy Resolutions for 2012

1. Unsubscribe from all e-mails and newsletters you don't read, never read anymore or never actively signed up for. Your e-mail address is just going to be sold to other marketers or mailing lists anyway so start to cut down on the clutter.

2. Update and strengthen your passwords that you use for critical, financial and other data heavy websites.

3. Stop updating everyone on your location via smartphone apps. No one really cares and you're just letting thieves know you are not home so they can rob you.

4. When putting mail in the mailbox for the Postman to pick up, don't lift the flag to indicate that there is mail in the box. The mailman will find it anyway. Leaving the flag up tells ID thieves that you have some mail that may contain some interesting personal data.

5. Pay all of your bills online. C'mon, it's 2012.

6. Stop using your debit card to make online or offline purchases, or buy gas; use a credit card only. Using a debit card gives a thief direct access to your checking account, making it difficult to prove fraud, and preventing you from taking advantage of consumer protection laws that most credit cards offer.

7. Do an exhaustive Google search on your self to see what information is out there so you can see what the blogosphere is saying about you, if anything.

8. Make sure the "Do not track" option is checked in your browser's setting.

9. If you haven't already, start to integrate the concept of 'privacy by design' into your business and/or IT development processes; don't try bolting it on once the process or application is complete and ready to be rolled out.

10. Formalize and publicize a social media policy within your company so everyone knows what the rules are.

11. Formalize and publicize your position on consumerized IT within your company, again, so everyone knows what the rules are.

12. Finally realize that there is no such thing as 'free' on the internet. No free iPads or dinner coupons to Cheesecake factory, or trips to Disney World. Stop clicking on those offers or accepting the links on Facebook. And no, you are not really the 1,000,000th visitor(!!!) to a site and have not really won anything. Pass it on.