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[Nick]

Is it too easy to get yourself nervous from others ?

Yes. The best advice is to use common sense and just to be sceptical about email, web services & cold calls etc. Invest a few quid in a small CROSS-CUT shredder to DIN 66399 Level 3 or level 4. Do not rely on strip-only shredders - they're useless - the smaller the "confetti" the better. Anything that you have that has PII (Personally Identifiable Information) on it MUST be shredded before disposal. Bank/credit card statement, utility bills, mobile bills, polling cards etc. Never ever reuse passwords across sites. Disk drives should be shredded/securely disposed of at end of life. Never return a disk under warranty.

Do the basics right, and you'll be fine. However, as stated, stopping yourself being tracked is a very difficult thing to do.

There's a simple set of maxims used in the risk world (heavily paraphrased):

• Minimise the attack surface (reduce the number of ways you can be attacked)
  
• Identify the risks you face (ransomware, phishing, system crashes, identity theft, fire, general theft...)
  
• Mitigate those risks you can, especially the most dangerous
  
• Accept the remaining risks and live/work with them
  
• Revisit this list every few months
  

You will never remove all risk and will never make yourself untraceable or immune from attack. Accept that.

Be clear - good security is an end-to-end PROCESS - it's not just about technology - it includes human behaviour and many other factors.

One important point: You are one amongst billions - it's highly unlikely that you'll be specifically targeted. You may be if you make it easier for scammers by leaking your PII and leaving it all over the internet & rubbish tips !