Workplace identity obesity is not very different from consumer identity obesity whereby personal identity component are carelessly placed at risk. The main differences are the impact level and the party other than the person placing the person’s identity at risk. You see, when companies are identity obese, they place their customer information at risk of privacy disclosure, theft and fraud.

I have discussed identity obesity before as it relates to consumers but I want to stress the fact that workplace identity obesity is very common and has more severe consequences because it can affect millions of customers. Companies also become identity obese by unnecessarily collecting, sharing, retaining and exposing their customer personal information. Often customers can not avoid sharing excessive and unnecessary information requested by companies such as when applying for a mortgage, including the means by which information is shared with the requesting company but it is generally a good practice for consumers to raise their concerns when they become aware of potential risks especially after reading their privacy policies and for the companies to listen to this customers’ concerns while avoiding similar mistakes made by other companies such as Facebook.

With the rising risk of identity theft and availability of free information online, lack of awareness and education can no longer be tolerated for preventing identity theft.

Visit our identity theft blog soon to read the next article with expanded discussion around workplace identity obesity.

Until next time, be identity safe,
Henry Bagdasarian
Identity Management Institute

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