Friday, November 27, 2009

The US And How It Views Personal Data Protection

By Frank Sanders

Personal data protection and what it means if the US can present more than a few surprises to people living in the United States who mistakenly believe that the adherence to a right to privacy in the country somehow transfers over to personal data that is collected or used online. In fact, there is a large amount of personal data that can be accessed by just about anyone, which is a disconcerting fact.

Currently, in the United States, the data privacy cannot be effectively ensured. Additionally, the laws and regulations overseeing it are somewhat weak. For a fact, just about anyone who needs it can obtain a report on someone's credit who might be applying for job or purchasing an automobile, for example. And there is comprehensive set of regulations that control data collection practices.

It is a fact that the storage, use and acquisition of personal data are greatly affected by this condition. It should serve to cause a great deal of concern that anyone troubling themselves enough to enter in personal data on anyone will be considered to be the owners of that online data when it comes to storing and using it even if no one gave permission for that data to be stored or collected.

And even though there are laws such as the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act or HIPAA, it might also serve to concern people once they find out that such laws are more about how to go about efficiently moving information through networks rather than sufficiently protecting it from any theft or usage that has not been authorized by the people that the information is about.

And even though the United States Supreme Court recognized in a landmark decision that there existed within the Constitution and Bill of Rights a defined right to privacy is also the case that only a few states actually recognize an individual right to privacy. The lone exception seems to be California, which values individual privacy ahead of much of anything else.

When it comes to protecting the privacy of data that has been collected and stored in information systems there are a set of effective tools that are known in the collective sense as "privacy enhancing technologies, " or PET. These consist of certain computer tools, mechanisms and applications which can allow an online user to protect the privacy of information that might allow a person to be identified.

Examples of such privacy enhancing technologies include communication anonymizers that work to hide actual online identity and replace it with a non-traceable identity. This includes the use of one-time or disposable e-mail addresses, random IP addresses, pseudonyms etc. That can be applied to e-mail networks, chat rooms and instant messaging systems, to name just a few examples.

Personal data protection and what it means to many of us will become an ever increasing point of concern as more and more people begin to conduct activities on the Internet and in cyberspace in general. Today, it is more important than ever that strong protection and privacy enhancement tools are used and that existing laws be strengthen such that they work to prevent theft or loss of personal data.

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