Although Dan Schlossberg’s Consumer Reports story Plastic Hotel Keys Can Be a Security Risk raises alarm about the information contained on hotel room key cards, the Chicago Tribune reported earlier this year that travelers have less to worry about than they think. In most cases, it seems, hotels do not put guests’ credit card information, home addresses and other personal details on room key cards. Instead, the cards contain basic information like room number, scheduled check-out date and an unlock code.

If you read Schlossberg’s story, you could come away from it believing that every hotel stay is putting you in danger of identity theft. I tend to put more stock in the Chicago Tribune’s take on the matter. Logically, for someone to read your hotel key card, they’d have to own a card reader just like the hotel’s. That’s a pretty unlikely scenario. On top of that, many hotel chains say they don’t store personal details on the cards.

Nor do I think travelers should fear hotel employees stealing information from key cards and charging up big bucks on credit cards any more than they’d fear employees of any other businesses they patronize. Think about it. Room key cards aside, hotel employees already have access to guest information. If a hotel employee wants to steal your information, s/he doesn’t need to steal your hotel key card to get it. Going through the company computer seems like a much simpler way to find private information.

At the end of the day, travelers should trade worrying about identity theft schemes like the one described in the above Consumer Reports story for time spent carefully go over their credit card and bank statements for erroneous charges and making sure to get annual credit checks, which can alert you to identity theft.