Privacy

Overview Keeping your private information private is becoming increasingly difficult in today's connected world. The Web offers a huge amount of information, tools, and entertainment, but often at a price: your privacy. Many "free" resources require you to register, sign in, or otherwise give away your name, address, and even your phone number. Unscrupulous Web sites may install "spyware" on your computer to collect information about your computer habits. It's not just online, either. Getting the best deals at the grocery store often requires a "preferred customer card", and to apply for the card you must supply your name and address.

General Information A. Michael Froomkin's article mentioned in the Issue section is called "Flood Control on the Information Ocean: Living with Anonymity, Digital Cash, and Distributed Databases" and is available at www.law.miami.edu/~froomkin/articles/ocean.htm. The Electronic Privacy Information Center's electronic privacy web resource, "Epic Online Guide to Practical Privacy Tools",  is online at http://epic.org/privacy/tools.html. The links at this site are truly awesome and essential armament for protecting your privacy in this age of electronic databases. The Cyberlaw Encyclopedia has compiled an index of cyberspace law subjects. Check out its "privacy" links by connecting to http://gahtan.com/cyberlaw/. 

You might want to read "Internet Privacy - Social Media Giving Out Personal Information?" By the news staff at Scientific Blogging (August 24th, 2009) (www.scientificblogging.com/news_articles/). If you're still interested in learning more about protecting your digital privacy, take a look at "10 golden rules for protecting your digital privacy" at the One Shot Design blog. The Privacy.org home page (www.privacy.org) does an excellent job of providing news and information about relavent privacy issues. If you are concerned about who has access to your personal data, such as medical records and credit reports, you can check the Consumer Action Organization (www.consumer-action.org), where you'll find some sage advice about protecting your privacy online. Note that you can retain some degree of anonymity on the Internet by using some of the software available at the Privacy Protection Software site www.firewallguide.com/privacy.htm. At the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse (www.privacyrights.org), you'll find information about additional ways to safeguard your privacy and prevent identity theft.

Additional Links

• The REAL ID Act raises many privacy issues.
• Electronic Privacy Information Center has information about The Real ID Act and National ID information.
• The ACLU has many articles related to ID cards and privacy issues such as "5 Problems with National ID Cards " and " Would national ID cards increase safety and preserve civil liberties? ".
• The Department of Homeland Security provides information about the REAL ID at the page found at www.dhs.gov/journal/leadership/2008/03/real-id-plain-and-simple.html.