Quote of the day:
"Life is like a taxi. The meter just keeps a-ticking whether you are getting somewhere or just standing still." -- Lou Erickso

1. Editor's Note: Keeping Our Private Info Private In An Online World

There were a couple of incidents this week that made me stop and think about my own personal data, who has it, and who could get their hands on it.

The answer to the last question is, apparently, absolutely anyone.

Just ask any of the 38,000 U.S. military veterans who had their data lost by Unisys Corp., a subcontractor for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. Today those vets have to worry that their names, dates of birth, Social Security numbers, and addresses are out there somewhere unsecured and vulnerable. Has the information been sold to identity thieves? Only time will tell, I'm afraid.

It gets even worse when you realize this is far from an isolated incident for the VA. In another recent case, a laptop and external drive were stolen, jeopardizing personal and financial information on about 25 million veterans, active-duty personnel, and their spouses. Two teenagers were arrested a few days ago in connection with the theft.

AOL made its own blunder this past weekend. The company admitted early this week it had exposed the personal search data of 658,000 people. Spokespeople for AOL quickly released an apology, calling it a "screw-up." Well, at least they got that part right.

The information, which focused on about 20 million searches done from its AOL software over a three-month period, was available for download over the weekend on AOL's research site. The company pulled it on Sunday, but not before it was downloaded and not before raising a maelstrom of criticism from the blogosphere.

The information is being made available from a number of Web sites, and it's proving to be interesting reading for a whole lot of people. AOL says the information has been "anonymized," meaning the users' names have been stripped off. That doesn't mean there isn't enough information in there to identify a lot of users. Come on... How many of us have searched at some point for our own names just to see what's out there? What if someone did just that and then searched for information on a particularly embarrassing medical condition?

Think about all the companies and organizations out there collecting data about each and every one of us—employers, doctors' offices, law offices, ISPs, and even search engines. And how much of that information would you like to have posted on a Web site for easy download? Think about all the things you've done searches for over the years.

If companies are going to keep this kind of information about us, it better be protected. And we need to think about who we entrust with our information. Do you care that someone somewhere might know what you're googling for?

What do you think? How worried are you about who has your information and what they're doing with it? Read more about this in my blog on InformationWeek.com.

Sharon Gaudin
sgaudin@cmp.com
www.informationweek.com