Identity thieves want to know three basic things about you: your name, your birthday...and your social security number.

There's not much you can do about the first two...they're almost impossible to hide.

That's why it's so important to do everything you can to protect your social security number.

Identity Theft Protection Resoures Carnegie Mellon Software Engineering Hideaway.net FCC Identity Theft Report Privacy Rights ID Theft Resources Identity Theft Resource Center

You might call Professor Latanya Sweeney an "Internet Angel". In fact, she's designed a special computer program called "Identity Angel".

Professor Sweeney said the program “basically looks around the internet for resumes and other kinds of places that can have your social security number and other information about you."

This information is sought by computer-savvy crooks that are out to steal your identity, your cash and your credit.

In her initial test of the program, Professor Sweeney found 140 job hunters who had publicly posted their resume on the Internet and included their social security number.

One of them is was professor Matt Smith of Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma.

"When I actually posted my c.v. online, I never even thought about the fact that my social security was on it and that it was a problem” said Smith.

Like many of us, Professor Smith grew up in a time before the Internet, before online identity theft became such a threat.

"We never thought it was a danger and I've always....you know, it's sad that we have to worry about these things now."

Now he blacks out his social security number on paper...and has removed it electronically from the resume on his website.

Because if an "Internet Angel" from across the country could track his identity....so could an "Internet Devil".

"If she was able to create a program to look for social security numbers online, I would suspect other people could do the same thing and possibly use them to their advantage” said Smith.

Bottom line?

"There's really no good reason to have a social security number on your resume."

Professor Sweeney's next step is to make her program even better.

She wants it to constantly scan the Internet and automatically alert people who list their social security numbers on line.

The best thing you can do right now, is to check your own online documents.

Look at them closely and make sure you're not giving out too much information.