RSSWednesday is Data Privacy Day
By Angela Gunn | Published January 27, 2009, 10:11 PM
Unfurl the festive banners and prepare the parades: Wednesday is the second annual Data Privacy Day, celebrated by the U.S., Canada, and 27 European countries. Intel co-sponsors the project, which includes a variety of events held on and around the special day.
In the US, six states (Arizona, California, Massachusetts, North Carolina, Oregon, and Washington) have declared Wednesday Data Privacy Day; in the US House of Representatives,
50 Congresspersons so far have signed on to co-sponsor a national version H.R. 31, a proclamation declaring Data Privacy Day, passed 402-0. In Canada, they're focusing efforts on educating The Kids about privacy on Facebook and similar sites. And in Europe, where this is in fact the third Data Protection Day, various efforts are also underway to educate the youth.
If you're in a large US city, the site linked above lists dozens of panels and events that'll appeal to the privacy-aware. But why attend services that preach to the converted? Perhaps the best way to observe Data Privacy Day is to reach out to the unchurched. Convince your mom not to answer those Nigerian e-mails that ask for her bank-account information. Explain to a 13-year-old why she shouldn't put her phone number on her MySpace page. Find a Magic 8-Ball and ask if you're one of the people who'll eventually find out that their personal data was compromised in the Heartland breach. Find ways to make the spirit of Data Privacy Day last all year 'round!
Data Privacy Day? No wonder breaches continue and increase. It should be Data Privacy Millennium. Price Waterhouse Cooper and Carnegie-Mellon’s CyLab have recent surveys that show the senior executive class to be, basically, clueless regarding IT risk and its tie to overall enterprise (business) risk. Data breaches and thefts are due to a lagging business culture – absent a new eCulture, breaches will, and continue to, increase. As CIO, I look for ways to help my business and IT teams further their education. Check your local library: A book that is required reading is "I.T. WARS: Managing the Business-Technology Weave in the New Millennium." It also helps outside agencies understand your values and practices.
The author, David Scott, has an interview that is a great exposure: http://businessforum.com/DScott_02.html -
The book came to us as a tip from an intern who attended a course at University of Wisconsin, where the book is an MBA text. It has helped us to understand that, while various systems of security are important, no system can overcome laxity, ignorance, or deliberate intent to harm. Necessary is a sustained culture and awareness; an efficient prism through which every activity is viewed from a security perspective prior to action.
In the realm of risk, unmanaged possibilities become probabilities – read the book BEFORE you suffer a bad outcome.
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|Recently, one of my online accounts asked me
to update my security questions. I did, I lied--for
instance my grandmothers maiden name?
It ain't spongebob.
And btw, my real name Flibberty Gibbet.
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|Great idea of the holiday. That will encrease people awareness of data safety. I was recently searching for any software that will help me to protect my confidential information and found this website: http://www.terminatedata.com. They have also many interesting artickles about data privacy on theis forum too. Hope someone will read there more about why it is iportant to protect the private data.
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|These companies should sponsor a software package that installs adblock and noscript for firefox, makes Firefox the default browser, and everyone will have privacy for a day!
We know this will never happen. When they say "privacy," they mean privacy as long as it doesn't interfere with commerce in their respective areas.
What a joke.
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|One acronym:
PIPEDA.
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|Thanks for chiming in, Roj! For all of us down here below the 49th Parallel: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PIPEDA
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