Identity Theft & Data Privacy

A statistic states that someone gets their identity stolen every 3 seconds in the United States and the problem is only growing. With most of our information being stored online and people getting careless when throwing away important documents it’s becoming increasingly easier for people to find information and steal an identity.

One story of an identity left ring in Dallas was actually solved due to the leader of the groups foolishness. He went to a night club one night and caught a cab back to his hotel and when he got out of the cab he fought with the cab driver, stole $40, kicked him and then ran inside to his room where the police followed him and found stacks of money and fraudulent paperwork along with stolen identities and peoples personal info and social security numbers. The group had been getting by using stolen identities and credit card info to pay for their hotels and everything else they were spending money on. They also traded stolen info with a group in Cincinnati so they could each have more info. They stole millions of dollars and their main form of stealing was filing false tax forms to get the refund checks. In total they stole more than 250 identities and one of the women were only sentenced to 5 years in prison.

-Mare

The Cloud-Safe or No?

Pretty much everyone has heard of, or even seen, the hundreds of nude photographs leaked of

Hollywood celebrities, such as Jennifer Lawrence and Kate Upton. What happened? Hackers were able to get their hands onto the pictures from Apple’s Cloud. Apparently they were able to access personal accounts by exploiting a security weakness in an Apple service. People argue that it is a “flagrant violation of privacy” and the FBI and Apple are looking into how these photos were stolen. This past Tuesday Apple released a statement saying “None of the cases we have investigated have resulted from any breach in any of Apple’s systems including iCloud of Find my iPhone.” The Apple spokeswoman, Nat Kerris also stated "We take user privacy very seriously and are actively investigating this report.” I feel like they have been doing so much investigating without any information. Personally, I believe that there are skilled hackers out there who are capable of getting in and seeing anything, so if you don’t want the public to know or see anything, think before you do! The internet is a very scary place!

-Chatty Charlie

Data privacy is a company's most valuable asset. Additionally the consumers' personal data is the greatest potential vulnerability. Fitbit, a health-tracking-device company, is under scrutiny. Fitbit first had a privacy scare in 2011; the company accidently-shared users' sexual activity online. The frenzy caused Fitbit to change their users' privacy profile default quickly to private.

Currently, the company collects health information exercise routines, geolocation, and sleep patterns. While this does not sound alarming – this information could be sold to third parties and presumably have their clients unfairly discriminated. Senator Chuck Schumer believing with health tracking devices becoming is attacking Fitbit mainstream: Apple Watch and Healthkit, minimal laws are against the selling of health-data.In order to protect their brand, Fitbit immediately released a statement to their consumers that their privacy had not been infringed upon, shared and never will be. Additionally they adjusted their company's privacy policy for additional comfort to their consumers.  A company's reputation can be destroyed with the breach of data.

-Mary

Holiday shopping is the best part of the year, shoppers patiently waiting to purchase their items during Black Friday. Unfortunately, when you are swiping your card you feel secure about the transaction until Target announces they have found a breach. 

 Mid-December 2013 Target found a breach within their system at which the hackers had gained access to their guess credit and debit card information.  The company was able to stop the breach and avoid further damage. Approximately 70 million individuals were affected and 40 million credit and debit card accounts may have been impacted. Not only were financial information taken, guests names, mailing and email address along with phone numbers were taken.  So how did they do this?  The hackers gained access to the data that is stored on the magnetic stripe on the back of the credit cards.  Target mentions they have contained and have the highest investigators looking into this.  But regardless you are not safe when you are using your debit/credit cards.

-KeAnna

“The wearable electronics market of which health/fitness trackers are about 61% will represent at least $2 billion in revenue worldwide by 2018” Fitness bands are great.

We love tracking our steps and the calories we burn throughout the day. But we never really think about where all the data that Nike, Jawbone, and Fitbit have on the way we walk, run and live.The Federal Trade Commission is concerned about brands giving out your personal fitness data. Companies would die for the valuable information of health, sleep, and location collected on these devices. Even if these brands are not selling your data, the social-media aspects of these systems allow other people to view your profile and statistics. It is scary knowing that these fitness tracking companies can collect and sell personal data without the consumer’s consent (although they are denying it now). This data is so detailed that a company could accurately guess a person’s credit rating from the information, and their unique manner of walking, all from personal health information such as weight and blood pressure. Personal health data should be just that, personal.

-Shani