THIS POST IS DIRECTED TO COLLEGE AND UNIVERSITY STUDENTS WHO LIVE FOR TODAY AND FORGET TOMORROW COULD BRING IDENTITY THEFT

Where are the protesters? You’re willing to protest over the war or the environment, but you do nothing when your personal data is being used inappropriately, even illegally. Haven’t you heard of the identity crisis? Almost $50 billion lost to ID theft in 2006. By the time you get to college, you should have discovered all that private stuff you gave to the MySpaces, Friendsters, or other social networking Web sites, had its drawbacks. Like exposing your personal life. Now, when it comes to outing your Social Security number, birth date and other financial data, it seems to me you should have learned enough to know where to draw the line. Get out there today and tell your college or university administration officials that you demand they insure the security of your sensitive data in the National Student Loan Data System. It is a database of 60 million student records maintained by the U.S. Department of Education. The Washington Post has disclosed improper searches in this database by companies surfing the data purely for marketing information. With the bungling record for protecting citizens’ data by federal agencies—the VA lost 26.5 million veterans’ personal data—and the educational systems’ record of being one of the largest entities to breach the information of its students, faculty and staff, you should already be irate enough to take action. You’re young, and on the way to a great life and career of your choice. Don’t start both by digging out of an identity theft situation that could cost you significant time and money.