Thursday, November 8, 2007

Paranoia becomes Reality

Since I first started hearing about Identity Theft, I have been extremely paranoid this is going to happen to me. I have so much "protection" software on my computer I can barely logon in less than 30 minutes for all the passwords I have to put in - and I'm not really sure any of it is really working. I'm almost to the point of shredding generic sales papers that are in no way addressed to me. Ok, that's an exaggeration.

But on that note, Josh Voorhees, recently posted about privacy on the Internet and the pros and cons (including Identity Theft) and it started the wheels turning again about this topic. You can read his post here:
http://voorhees713.wordpress.com/2007/11/02/eoto-individual-privacy-in-an-online-world/
I'm a huge advocate of privacy and this post really hits the nail on the head. It's a classic "damned-if-you-do" and "damned-if-you-don't" scenario. And I wish I had the answer as to what the appropriate response should be...

But the thing that is most perplexing is that Josh says some government action is needed. I agree, but something happened this week that makes the situation of Identity Theft even more unnerving. A friend of mine had his identity stolen - but he wasn't any Jo Schmoo - he was an NYPD officer. How much protection can we possibly have if even our law enforcement officials are being targeted...many who didn't even realise they had been scammed until my friend figured out he had!!! You can read about it here:
http://www.nypost.com/seven/11072007/news/regionalnews/id_theft_ring_picks_the_wrong_targets____396695.htm

After a few days writing about how every nation and every child should have Internet access...news like this makes me realise that it is also easy to be nostalgic about "the way things were" when victimised by the bad things that inevitably accompany any new invention introduced to society.

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