Government, Business Can Do Better With Our Data

Users can take lots of steps to secure their computers, but efforts to preserve privacy don't do much good if government and business don't do more to keep personal data secure. (By Hunter Wilson -- Washingtonpost.com)

- Keep sensitive files encrypted. By scrambling a file with the right kind of software, you can make it unreadable to anybody who obtains the file without the right password. Both Mac OS X and Windows include basic encryption software, and add-on programs offer still stronger protection.

Yes, some of this software can be difficult to use. So is most of the junk on the average office machine, and everybody has survived that. (The selection of cryptography software might also be better if the federal government hadn't spent years trying to criminalize a free, open standard for encryption called Pretty Good Privacy. But I digress.)

- Store only data that you need. Companies that focus on defensive measures such as file encryption are like drivers who try to stop people from breaking into their cars by upgrading their car alarms, instead of remembering to take the iPod out of the car when they park it.

Business and government need to learn this lesson and reduce the value of whatever data might be stolen. Ending the overuse of Social Security numbers as personal identifiers must be the first step. Far too many offices ask for those nine magic digits, then compound their error by storing them in their records afterward.

A quick inventory of the records around my house shows that my Social Security number has adorned a frighteningly varied set of documents: pay stubs, my college ID, HMO cards, driver's licenses, even a blood donor card. It's a safe bet those digits have identified me in the data banks behind each slip of paper or laminated plastic.

That's nothing but lazy programming. Stop compromising my privacy by using my "Social" as an account number. Make up your own number, one that will have no value to a thief. If the Department of Motor Vehicles can do that, so can you.

Simple ethics ought to compel any responsible company or government agency to get this right. But if that's not enough, consider this: The United States has become a nation of lawyers, and I'm sure a healthy payday awaits the first one to win a class-action lawsuit over carelessness with our data. I will have no problem collecting my paltry share of the reward -- as long as I don't have to cough up my Social Security number first.

Living with technology, or trying to? E-mail Rob Pegoraro atrob@twp.com.