In light of Zappo’s recent announcement that its database was hacked, OnGuardOnline.gov offers the following tips to help you reduce your risk of identity theft:

OnGuardOnline.gov and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) are hearing from people who think we’ve called them.  OnGuardOnline.gov is an educational website managed by the federal government. We never contact people by phone to ask for their information or to “fix” their computers. The phone number you see on your caller ID is probably a fake.

We’re constantly looking for ways to improve OnGuardOnline.gov, so we really appreciate the feedback we get from visitors. We can’t always respond to every request, but we wanted to take a moment today to address some questions that we’ve seen more than once.

When it comes to privacy promises, what businesses say about the personal information they collect from you has to line up with their day-to-day procedures. That’s the message of the FTC’s proposed settlement announced today with Facebook. Where did the company go wrong? The agency’s 8-count complaint boils down to this: Facebook’s privacy practices often flew in the face of its stated policies and, as one count alleges, the company made significant retroactive changes to its privacy practices, without getting users’ consent.