The prudent see danger
and take refuge, but the simple keep going and pay the penalty. (NIV)—Proverbs
27:12
If you are reading this blog, then you probably are already
working in the US with a green card or non-immigrant status, or you hope to do
so soon. In any case, this blog post, and the ones that follow, will offer some
thoughts on enhancing your personal security. I do not claim to be an expert,
or to have any law enforcement experience. I will say, though, sadly, that two
people I knew died from criminal violence in West Philadelphia. One of them, Wharton
classmate Douglas Huffman, was mugged in the 4400 block of Osage Street late
one night in our first year. During the incident, his head hit the curb.
Refusing medical treatment, he instead went home and later died in his sleep.
The other was a young man from my church, Cyril Leung 梁湘麒, a
graduate student at Penn, who was beaten into a coma in Clark Park in October
1988 and died a few weeks later. My other crime connections include service as
a juror in a capital murder case, and representation, for H-1B status, of an
individual and an organization that counsel victims of sex trafficking.
I certainly do not wish such things to happen to you.
However, as much as I would like, I am unable to guarantee that reading what I
write will guarantee your safety. Still, I hope this information helps you and
makes you think.
A few years ago, I was communicating with a former student
of mine, a graduate of Tsinghua Law School, whom I had met in 2008. One day I
noticed an address in her signature line, and this address struck me as strange
because it didn’t look like an office address. Out of curiosity, I replied to
her and asked her if that address was either the office where she was and is
working, or whether it was the departmental address of the university she had
graduated from. I then wrote that I really hoped it was not her home address.
She replied that yes, it was her home address.
Did I ever freak out at her. In 48-point type, I immediately
and furiously wrote to her,
REMOVE THAT
ADDRESS---NOW!!!!!!!
I explained to her, after I settled down, that the issue was
not that friends of hers might have this address. Rather, the issue was that
these friends might forward her email to other people, who might in turn
forward it to still others. In other words, people she might not even know
could have her home address via her email.
Putting a home address in an email signature is an extreme
example. Probably you would never do such a thing, and neither, I hope, will
this student anymore. Maintaining the privacy of your home address is a
critical aspect of your personal safety.The more that you circulate that information, the less privacy you have, and hence the greater the chances that you are creating a security exposure for yourself.
One of the most common places where you might put your home
address is in a resume. Doing so is a common practice, and it stems from the
days before email and texting. In those days, the only way to communicate in
writing was via regular U.S. mail. For this reason, an employer would want an
address on a resume.
Today, however, we have alternate communication methods. For
this reason, you may want to re-think the practice of putting a home address on
your resume. Instead, you might want to limit your contact information to only
a cell phone and email address.
On the other hand, a potential employer, particularly one
from an older generation, might be put off by the lack of an address. Last
year, one executive told me that he used the resume address as an initial
screening, to give less weight to resumes which indicated that the candidate
lived further away. I question this person’s logic, but it is what it is, and others
might think the same way. For this reason, you will need to weigh the
advantages vs. the disadvantages of putting your address on your resume.
One possible solution is to use an alternate address, for
example by renting a box from the U.S. Postal Service. Then, instead of using
your real home address, use the post office box. One disadvantage of this
approach is that many if not all courier services will not deliver to a post
office box, and a key example is Federal Express. That is, they and others
would require an actual street address.
For this reason, if such delivery is important, you might
want to consider instead a private mailbox service, such as the UPS Store, Mailboxes
Etc. or similar business. Such services are more likely to be able to accept
courier deliveries, assuming that they allow you to specify an actual street number
and name along with the private mail box number.
If you do use such an alternate address, then you possibly
could use it for more than a resume. You could use it for magazine
subscriptions, merchandise orders and other things. If not, be aware of actions
that could reveal your address, such as bringing a subscription magazine to the
office, or else leaving it in your car such that someone could see it from the
outside.
On a related note: if you live in a garden apartment complex, and if you have a
car, then the management office probably wants to keep track of which cars are
authorized to park. If the office does not keep a paper-based or computer file
of license numbers and car model information, then probably they would require
you to have an identifying sticker for your rear window or your bumper. If that
sticker includes the name of your apartment complex, then be aware that you
have given up some measure of privacy as to your address.
Later posts will cover other aspects of personal safety. I
hope this initial post is useful.
The above content does not constitute legal advice and does
not form an attorney-client relationship.
Calvin Sun, Attorney at Law, 610-296-3947,
csun@calvinsun.com
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