Ray said that there are a few products to protect privacy, but there are many firms who are doing all they can to invade our privacy. Ray quoted Negropante, founder of the Media Lab at MIT, saying that Data is most valuable when it is in motion. However, today information is the way that people create wealth. He says that this is a site that should cause fear. Steven notes that both consumers and legislators are becoming more savvy.
Consumers are more willing to share personal info, but they are less likely to share sensitive info.
Identity theft is one of the fastest growing crimes of our times. One in five households will be affected by identity theft. Steven related a story of interviewing people in a company. The people said that they did not collect personal information, and the story held until he talked to the database administrator, who was proud to show all the things that the data base had and could do, including the collection of private data on individuals. He mentioned several cases in which privacy rulings have made a big impact on the bottom lined because of fines or drastic drops in market value.