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I can’t help but to notice that there seems to be a privacy confusion in our society when we read the news or participate in our identity theft discussion forum. On one hand, every one seems to agree that we all want to define and protect our privacy rights by implementing regulations, issuing privacy notices, and assigning privacy officers to protect the rights of customers, and yet most of us are willing to give up at least some of these rights for safety, security and other personal gains. We all know how lack of privacy at various businesses but most importantly at the social networking sites such as Facebook is affecting the consumer desire to continue using these services as they become more educated and aware of the risks while they share their personal information with the website or businesses. Most social networking sites make money by selling advertising and advertisers want to spend their money wisely by carefully targeting consumers who are more likely to buy their products. As such websites are more likely and willing to share their customer information with advertisers to help them target consumers based on their specific criteria. To the businesses, this is just part of the business survival strategy and nothing personal, but while consumers are learning to notice why advertisings appear to match their thoughts (which they have shared online), they understand that this is not happening by luck or accident but with a highly sophisticated marketing and advertising strategy which must violate consumer privacy to be successful if consumers have not shared their information willingly. We also know that governments are also monitoring our emails, phone conversations and internet activities looking for potential terrorism red flags. While as consumers, we do not know to what extent our privacy is maintained or violated, the required balance for maintaining total privacy vs. giving up some privacy for security or other benefits such as the chance to win an iPod or vacation is to some extent a personal choice. While we use various communication tools to share information such as the Internet, email, phone, letters and applications, we have to assume that our personal thoughts and information will be shared, logged and monitored. Businesses will risk everything including facing a privacy lawsuit to make money and satisfy their shareholder expectations while they decide to deal with privacy issues later and governments which issue privacy regulations to protect consumers will violate the same regulations in the name of security and safety although they may not have other alternatives. Please forward this email to others who may also be interested to receive the Identity Management Journal. Until next time, be identity safe, Announcement We have established an agreement with Identity Force to offer their automated identity monitoring services and assisted identity theft resolution services for a period of 30 days at no charge and at a discounted price thereafter. Please read our review of their services for more information. Stolen Social Security Number Stolen social security number can occur before a person is born or after the SSN is issued regardless of whether the person received the SSN at birth or upon coming to the country as an immigrant. Identity Risk Management Certification An identity risk management certification is gaining recognition as professionals attempt to manage growing identity risks within their corporate environments. Electronic Pick Pocketing Radio Frequency Identification or RFID enabled credit cards are on the rise as well as the electronic pick pocketing risks that they have introduced. |