To help you determine whether a particular alert is worthy of Chicken Little or is truly dangerous, here are translations for some of the most common threat terms.

A recent BusinessWeek article detailed a number of examples where the data gathered by information brokers conducting background checks on prospective or current employees was incorrect, or at least disputed, and cost people jobs. Thankfully, you can examine some of your records ahead of time, as you can (and should) do with your credit report, to make sure no surprises pop up when someone checks them.

Imagine being able to check your medical history as easily as you can your e-mail. Or being able to provide records to a new doctor at a moment's notice. Google, Microsoft, and others are developing promising systems for storing digital health care records--for free.

But there's a catch (of course). Both the upcoming Google Health, currently in private testing, and Microsoft's public beta of HealthVault deal with our most personal information. The two projects will eventually enable doctors and hospitals to add records for hospitalization, doctor visits, and prescriptions (after you give your okay), and will permit you to upload data from devices that you might use at home, such as blood glucose monitors. They could be especially useful for allowing a new doctor to quickly confirm that, for instance, a prescription won't cause problems with other medications you're taking.