Feb 4th, 9:40am
Live blog post…
Winn Schwartau is the President of Interpact Inc. He explains how easy it is to gather information on an individual; medical, financial and legal information are all available using a range of free and paid Internet services.
Key concerns:
– On the Internet today, there are approx. 500,000 databases containing personal information.
– Virtually no regulation exists to protect privacy especially in the US.
– No-one reads usage agreements that outline what a company can do with our data.
– Privacy rules/laws difficult to set because technology changes so rapidly.
– 75 percent of US residents have had data on them lost or stolen.
He makes a number of interesting points:
– Why can’t we treat our personal details as copyrighted information? Why can’t we own our own names?
– The questions are ethical not legal.
– We need to redefine ‘public domain’ to mean ‘for the public good’.
– We should be able to tell companies that they can only use our information for one transaction (unless we order otherwise).
– We must be able to request and receive all information held on us by companies.
– We must have data error repair rights and, if possible, some recourse for abuse.
– Need leadership and global cooperation to bring about change.
Interesing and thought provoking, more info at www.thesecurityawarenesscompany.com.
Mike
