But John checks it out, and checks out the privacy policy, and as long as they don't want a whole lot of information, it's usually okay.

Besides, most websites we ever give information to, we buy something from, so we have to give them a real address and such, or we can't get our merchandise.

Any others, I either usually know the person running it, or can use an e-mail address that isn't a big deal if it gets compromised. If they just need an email, that's easier. It's sites that we aren't buying from that want a real address or phone number that we don't get on. Or if they say they'll give or sell our information to anyone, we don't get on them.

For example, there is a website I would like to be on, but they want more info than John is comfortable with, and they also claim they can do whatever they want with the info. So I can only read the public areas of that site. (Fortunately, there are some).

We don't do things like online banking or bill paying online, or anything that requires really serious information, so we're safer in that regard.

Brenda