First, people should understand that there is a wealth of information on you that's available to whomever is willing to pay a few bucks (actually up to about $115) to any of the major data-collecting agencies. This typically includes obvious things like where you live, what you pay for rent/mortgage, who shares the home with you, what your job is (and often salary - particularly if its public sector) - but also all the data collected from all the rewards cards, cell phones, social media sites and web surfing. Assuming you have a cell phone and/or a FB/Instagram and/or a computer and/or credit card they can distill how much you spend and on what, where you (or more specifically your phone) is in 6 second intervals, what you post about online.... and **then** what all the same information from your family, friends and colleagues.
So there's little a stranger can't find out about you that someone who followed you around for several days also couldn't figure out.
Put another way, I don't share any details here that someone who knew my name couldn't find out with a few clicks. It makes me worried for the future, and anyone who thinks they are smart enough to never fall for a scam is naive. Anyone can spoof a number or email address to make it seem like a phone call is coming from someone you know, and it's becoming increasingly easy to impersonate someone's voice and even looks ("deepfakes").
My main defenses are to remain vigilant and skeptical. I have a credit freeze which (allegedly) prevents anyone (including ymself) from opening an account for 30 days, and I periodically check my credit reports to look fro any suspicious activity. Likewise, all my financial accounts have multi-week holds to prevent someone from lceaning out an account in a couple of hours. If the systems work as they should I will be notified of the activity. On that front, as much of a pain as it is, two-factor authentication helps a great deal, as it requires thieves to both know something specific (a password, my SS#) but also have access to something physical (my phone).
Never in history has there been a way to 100% protect yourself from bad actors. The key IMO is to make it much harder to get money from you than it is from the average person. As my assets go up that will make me more of a target, but hopefully if I keep making my assets harder to access than people with a similar amount of wealth I'll be ok.