Commentary:
Personal data abuse has become rampant by credit reporting agencies, credit collectors, insurance companies, banks and government.

By- John O'Reily- General Manager

"The major benefactor is the credit reporting industry that sells your information to money lenders and governments. Neither of which is too concerned about the quality of that information- as long as it is cheap. The credit reporting business is even making a huge amount of their profits selling your own information back to you on-line. See chart below to see how lucrative!"

"It would be a surprise if any one of these organizations spent even one tenth of one percent of their net profit per year on protecting their Client data. The credit/ debt card system with pin # is so cheap to operate the banks & credit card companies just can't resist. Unfortunately, there is minimal, real protection for us- the Customer."

"We have been inside (invited in) several financial data centers to do implementation work over the years. To our surprise, most are still running on old mainframes dating back to the 1970's or pieced together networks. Or, the services are jobbed out to the lowest bidder. Cheap? You bet they are. When it comes to lobbying the US gov't the opposite is true. Cheap do not enter the vocabulary when it comes to getting what they want through just this one avenue- as the following story illustrates:
"Credit-Score Group Spent $1.6M Lobbying" AP online March 26, 2008.
And guess who owns close to 100% of Equifax shares? Your guessed it- institutional investors (banks- mutual funds- insurance companies)1

"Even the big ones loose their backups or are compromised- B of A, CIBC, TJX, DSW, even the UK gov't & UCLA. Some will notify you and say 'Sorry" but with no compensation. You can be sure they report it to credit bureau which are connected to collection agencies hired by the money lenders and of course, the tax man. Government just can not resist either. Since they feed so heavily off their profits and contact out their own collection activities to: You guessed it- credit agencies "

"Not until government has the guts to stand up for their own Citizens will this situation change- if anything it will get worse. Without enforcement or stiff penalties for the offenders, there is no point to existing Privacy laws. Next time you have the opportunity to meet or write your representative, tell them serious changes needs to occur to protect personal information to restore confidence in the system. Tell them- our fore- Fathers and Mothers fought hard for our freedom which includes the right to Privacy. Today, we are faced with government that takes pleasure in prying into every facet of our lives for the "greater good". Who's greater good? Their e-mail addresses are easy to find on government directories on the Internet or make a polite call and ask. You are paying for it!"

"This all comes back to the individual or organization needing to take a pro-active role in protecting their own identity in a digital world with systems and software that address specific privacy and security needs. Unfortunately, there is not a single solution since some excel in internet or network security, others in filtering spyware and spam. Then, there are the traffic blockers- firewalls, followed by cleaners of old email, redundant files and Internet use residue- data destruction. There is encryption software for files, drives and email to avoid interception and thief on-line or right off your computer(s) by copied disks or downright selling to the physical computer, notebook or media."