WIRED CONFIRMS WE ARE SURROUNDED BY “APATHETICS”

I found a new, interesting blog, EphemeralLaw, that is manned by attorneys interested in the protection of your privacy. One of these attorneys, William Morriss, just did a post, “Is Privacy Worthless?” quoting from the Wired piece, that will ring your bell if you’re one of the “apathetics.” If you don’t remember, that’s my term for those of you out there that refuse to accept the fact that you are in constant jeopardy of having your identity stolen. And I know this because I spent 35 years as a junk mail data broker selling your names and private information, observing the careless, even incompetent handling of this sensitive data. The Wired article, “Privacy Market Has Many Sellers, but Few Buyers,” has so much good information to shock the privacy palate, that it is a must read. Like the fact that business and government are selling their “achievements” in privacy, but in fact it is a façade for the fact that personal data breaches continue at an alarming rate: 245 so far in 2007, 673 total, accounting for almost 166 million private records lost, since Privacy Rights Clearinghouse started keeping records, January of 2005. Do you understand that some of these records are still out there, waiting to be used when the heat is off, like after one year of monitoring your credit is over? Although down somewhat from 2005, according to Javelin Research, there were 9.3 million victims of identity theft in 2006, resulting in a consumer loss of $49.3 billion. Folks, the ID thieves are seasoned professionals now, technologically organized to the hilt. And if they don’t find you, the amateurs who surf the Internet underworld for your personal data to make enough money to feed their drug habits or other pastimes will. You can fight the battle by joining my grass-roots movement to give this control of names and private information back to the consumer, and compensate them when it is sold.