Privacy, Identity and Safety

When people talk about privacy concerns related to Internet usage, their main concern Is often a risk of financial loss – that someone will steal their credit card, bank account number or their entire identity and they will lose all their savings, or at least their good credit. These are valid concerns. An instance of identity theft can take months or years to sort out.

But there is also a certain amount of concern over personal safety. There is a fear of being stalked or attacked or that one’s home will be broken into. There have been news reports of these sorts of things happening and it can be frightening. Is it a big risk?

While there have been a few anecdotes involving stalking and persons being lured into situations where they are victimized or robbed, there seem to be no statistics available on these types of crimes that are related to Internet activity.

But to emphasize the potential, a group that calls itself “Forthehack” created the web site pleaserobme.com, where you can find twitter posts from people who identify that they are not at home. The idea is that these people’s homes are available for burglary. The web site creators are not trying to get people robbed – they are trying to make the point that your Internet postings could be used by unscrupulous persons and that you should be careful. The results shown on pleserobme.com can be obtained from a simple search on Twitter, which the site shows you how to accomplish.

The FBI and other US governmental agencies focus their attention on three broad areas of Internet-related crimes: those related to terrorism, those that involve a possible or actual financial loss and those involving the exploitation of children. It is that latter category where the greatest physical crime threat exists.

It might be argued that in recent years we have become overprotective of children and too worried about threats to their safety. But it is also true that many of the threats are real and must be addressed by parents, law enforcement and the public. In the past, it was relatively easy to teach children not to talk to strangers, not to take candy from them and not to accept rides from them. Strangers on the street or in cars are easy for anyone, even a child, to identify as a stranger.

In the on-line world, of course, we have the ability to be anonymous. This is an aspect that we seem to value about the internet and we have seen a lot of advice to the effect that it is better to be anonymous to protect our own identities and our safety. This ability to be anonymous then gets turned on its head by those who wish to exploit – especially those who want to exploit children. It is not as easy for the child to spot a stranger as being dangerous when they seem to be just another 11 year-old in a chat room.

Most parents understand these risks (and if they don’t they should get informed fast). But how should those who manage online resources respond? Do the owners of social media sites and the like have a responsibility in this? Some of them try to put in place methods to identify their members as being who they claim to be and even monitor online chats. But there are usually easy ways to get around these identity checks.

Professionals who deal in any way with consumer identity information have a responsibility to at the very least make their best efforts to ensure the privacy and safety of those who buy their products or use their services. This is done by setting and following policies on privacy and security and designing systems that provide for compliance with regulations and ethical standards. It takes a little extra work to get it right, but it must be done to protect customers and users and most particularly children.

I’ll be speaking on the subject of privacy and identity at Enterprise Data World in San Francisco next week. My presentation will be at 8:00 a.m. on March 17. For more information on the conference, go to http://edw2010.wilshireconferences.com/.