Sending personal documents to rent an accommodation or obtaining a credit is not without danger. Fortunately, there is a simple and free method to limit the risks of diverted use.
The digitization of documents and exchanges has made many approaches much easier and easier, but has also created new risks. Whether to rent accommodation or vehicle, make a reservation for a trip or take out any service contract, it is often necessary to transmit supporting documents and sensitive administrative documents. Identity card, passport, tax notice, proof of domicile or even bank identity (RIB), you must regularly provide these precious documents to third parties, without knowing exactly what they are going to do with them.
Too often unfortunately, the documents transmitted are preserved in a non -encrypted manner on more or less secure computers or storage devices, and can then be the subject of a data leak, such as those which regularly make the headlines. Sometimes the recipients are even malicious actors, who use service platforms and social networks to post false announcements and thus collect sensitive documents.
In any case, once sent, these documents completely escape your control and can very easily be diverted for malicious or illicit purposes. Among these fraudulent uses, we obviously think of identity theft, by which a crook can open bank accounts or take out loans on your behalf, which may have dramatic consequences on your life. But other apparently less sensitive documents also have risks: with your RIB, a malicious company can for example easily set up an automatic levy, which you will not notice immediately, and thus puncture large sums of money in the long term.
To limit these risks and complicate the task of possible crooks, a good practice is to systematically affix a watermark on the digital documents that you transmit. Good news, the public authorities have just put a completely free and secure service online to do so: Watermark. Very easy to use, this service allows everyone, without account and without registration, to integrate watermark on personal documents before sending them. You just have to set off the files concerned on the page, write the text to be inserted as a watermark, then download the documents thus modified in PDF format.
Admittedly, this method of protection is not infallible and the watermark can be removed with certain computer tools, but it has the merit of making the diversion of these sensitive documents more difficult, which will discourage a good part of the crooks, and to point out to the recipient the confidential nature of the transmitted elements. The use of watermark being simple, fast, free and secure, so it is a good habit to take, which could avoid many problems and which it would be a shame to deprive yourself.