--- title: Why You Should NEVER Tell Starbucks Your Birthday, According to a Cybersecurity Expert description: With cybercrime on the rise every year, experts say that if you stop doing this one thing you can help prevent identity theft. authors: - name: Kristen Bahler role: Managing Editor url: https://money.com/author/kristen-bahler/ bio: Kristen Bahler has spent more than a decade turning culture, work and consumer spending trends into conversation-driving stories. Today, she leads Money's sponsored content channel and reader-favorite franchises like Best Places to Live and Best Places to Travel. education: Northeastern University, MA Journalism at_money_since: 2016 articles: 52 covers: - Identity Theft - Banking - Business - Career Advice - Credit - Credit Cards - Economy and Politics - Education - Health and Wellness - Housing - Insurance - Investing - Lifestyle - Loans - Mortgages - Personal Finance - Pets - Professional Services - Retirement - Shopping - Taxes - Technology social: - https://www.linkedin.com/in/kristen-bahler/ published: '2019-02-15T17:30:22.000Z' modified: '2019-03-29T19:57:03.000Z' section: Identity Theft tags: - identity theft word_count: 416 canonical: https://money.com/cybercrime-hack-birthdays/ type: Article source: structured-blocks --- > **Disclosure:** We research all brands listed and may earn a fee from our partners. Research and financial considerations may influence how brands are displayed. Not all brands are included. [Learn more](https://money.com/page/disclaimer/). ![Starbucks Coffee Store Along New York State Thruway](https://img.money.com/2019/02/starbucks-birthday-hackers-965538570.jpg) *SAUGERTIES, NEW YORK - MAY 15: Employees at a Starbucks store serve customers May 15, 2018 at a rest stop along the New York State Thruway in Saugerties, New York. Starbucks stores were closed May 29 for a day-long training session on social justice and bias for its 175,000 employees at 8,000 locations following an issue with two African-American guests April 12, 2018 in Philadelphia, PA. (Photo by Robert Nickelsberg/Getty Images)* We’ve gotten a lot better, collectively speaking, at protecting our identities. Online registration forms now require strong, hacker-proof passwords. Vigilant IT teams have trained us to avoid the phishing scams lurking in our inboxes. And it’s been a REALLY long time since grandma tried to wire cash to a Nigerian prince. But massive data breaches are only getting worse. Just last month, a treasure trove of stolen email passwords was leaked onto the dark web — the largest breach ever, [*Wired* reports](https://www.wired.com/story/collection-one-breach-email-accounts-passwords/). And hacked cash registers at [Saks Fifth Avenue](https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/01/technology/saks-lord-taylor-credit-cards.html) and [Forever 21](https://www.businessinsider.com/forever-21-alerts-customers-of-data-breach-2018-1)—both of which had their systems compromised last year—proves retailers' cybersecurity woes didn’t end with the [2013 Target fiasco](https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/23/business/target-security-breach-settlement.html). If all of this kind of makes you want to vomit, here’s what one cybersecurity expert says should do instead. The next time a company asks for your birthday—online store, brick and mortar shop, restaurant, or otherwise—don’t give it to them. It’s not an infallible solution to cybercrime. But it is a concrete step that will put you miles ahead of most consumers should your data get stolen, says Jeni Rogers, author of "*[200+ Ways to Protect your Privacy](https://www.amazon.com/Ways-Protect-Your-Privacy-Privacy/dp/1721400125)."* “It takes more than one piece of information for \[hackers\] to really do their damage,” she says. "So when all kinds of data on one person is stored in a system, and they're able to access it, that's the hacker jackpot." Signing up for rewards programs and birthday freebies can be tempting, especially at the brands we’re loyal to. Starbucks gives you free coffee; 7-11 lets you rack up discounts on Slurpees and chili dogs (who wouldn't want that?). But when companies store that information in the same place they keep credit card data, it gives hackers “one more piece of the puzzle they don’t have to work for," Rogers explains. So don’t do it. Don’t do it at online stores, don’t do it at restaurants, and don’t do it at your favorite local haunts (you really think those coffee shop iPads are impervious to cybercrime?!). If you have to prove your age for legal reasons—at a tanning salon, maybe, or a tattoo parlor—flash your ID, and ask the company to keep your birthdate out of its system, Rogers says. And don't be embarrassed about it. “The thing about protecting your privacy is you sometimes have to ride the line between being a conspiracy theorist and having common sense,” she says. “This is a simple, un-intimidating thing that doesn’t make you look like a crazy person." ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "@id": "https://money.com/cybercrime-hack-birthdays/#breadcrumb", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://money.com" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Identity Theft", "item": "https://money.com/identity-theft/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Cybersecurity", "item": "https://money.com/cybersecurity/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "Why You Should NEVER Tell Starbucks Your Birthday, According to a Cybersecurity Expert" } ] }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://money.com/#website", "url": "https://money.com", "name": "Money", "publisher": { "@id": "https://money.com/#organization" } }, { "@type": "WebPage", "@id": "https://money.com/cybercrime-hack-birthdays/#webpage", "url": "https://money.com/cybercrime-hack-birthdays/", "name": "Why You Should NEVER Tell Starbucks Your Birthday, According to a Cybersecurity Expert", "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://money.com/#website" }, "datePublished": "2019-02-15T17:30:22.000Z", "mainEntity": { "@id": "https://money.com/cybercrime-hack-birthdays/" }, "inLanguage": "en-US", "breadcrumb": { "@id": "https://money.com/cybercrime-hack-birthdays/#breadcrumb" }, "dateModified": "2019-03-29T19:57:03.000Z" }, { "@type": "Article", "headline": "Why You Should NEVER Tell Starbucks Your Birthday, According to a Cybersecurity Expert", "articleSection": "Identity Theft", "image": [ { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://img.money.com/2019/02/starbucks-birthday-hackers-965538570.jpg", "width": 7200, "height": 4735, "caption": "Starbucks Coffee Store Along New York State Thruway" } ], "author": [ { "@type": "Person", "name": "Kristen Bahler", "url": "https://money.com/author/kristen-bahler/", "@id": "https://money.com/author/kristen-bahler/#author", "description": "Kristen Bahler has spent more than a decade turning culture, work and consumer spending trends into conversation-driving stories. 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