The democratization of access to data continues to disturb those who discover that no area is left unmashed and repurposed. Mashing, a term very web 2.0, is when an application such as Google Maps is used to display data from another application. Let’s look at an example of this, chicagocrime.org. Everything you wanted to know about a crime in Chicago, right there in a google map. There are hundreds of others, crime just being one of those more easily produced since many police departments use GIS tools to combat crime. Another one, zillow.com, takes real estate sales data and listings and maps it out for you.

Even personal data, is not immune from the mashup, which has lead Connecticut Governor Jodi Rell to announce on Monday, according to the Journal Register, that something must be done.

Complaints about online directory assistance sites that reveal extensi e personal data have prompted Gov. M. Jodi Rell to start developing a legislative packa

In a news release, Rell said Monday that she’s received complaints about online search engines that list not only names, addresses, and telephone numbers but also people’s ages, places of work, and other personal information.

Rell said she plans to propose restrictions that would likely be in the form of an “opt-out” registry that’s an electronic version of the state and federal “Do Not Call” list, which blocks telemarketing calls to citizens whose phone numbers are on the list.

“Anyone who goes to WhitePages.com or 411.com will find personal information published that many people may want protected,” Rell said. “This is a safety and security issue, particularly for our elderly citizens who too often are targeted by scam artists and other opportunists.”

Hrmm, scam artists and opportunists. She wouldn’t be talking about the opportunisitic credit reporting conglomerates that sell your data to all comers now would she? The USA Today chronicled the link of credit agencies, which sell “target lists” to lenders that then aggressively market loans and other financial products.

Federal Trade Commission Chairman Deborah Platt Majoras says her agency has done a credible job regulating the Big Three credit bureaus.
But the boom — and now bust — of subprime mortgages is fueling criticism that the FTC under Platt Majoras has given Experian, Equifax and TransUnion too much latitude to profit from the sale of credit data to lenders and consumers.

“Federal agencies that are supposed to be looking out for the consumer are really protecting the companies that do bad things the agencies were set up to prevent,” says political commentator Robert Kuttner, author of The Squandering of America: How the Failure of Our Politics Undermines Our Prosperity.

In February, the National Association of Mortgage Brokers lambasted the FTC for giving the credit bureaus tacit approval to keep selling listings — called “trigger lists” — containing personal and financial data of prospective borrowers. Some unscrupulous lenders used trigger lists to contact people who recently filled out a loan application, and then pitched them subprime mortgages, higher-priced loans aimed at people with spotty credit histories but also marketed to borrowers with good credit.

Most applicants never knew the bureaus were placing them on trigger lists and were surprised to be deluged by phone calls and e-mails for subprime loans. These too-good-to-be-true offers came from brokers who skirted rules requiring traditional lenders to make firm offers only in writing.

So much for the FTC keeping consumers safe. Which is sort of where Governor Rell thinks she’s heading with her announcement. But State Attorney General Dick Blumenthal is not on board yet.

One impediment is that the First Amendment of the Constitution prohibits the restraint of free speech. That means that the directory-assistance Web sites cannot be forced to remove any data that is public. And one’s name, spouse’s name, address (unless unpublished), age, and workplace are probably all available to the public, whether they can be easily found or not.

If it’s public, Attorney General Richard Blumenthal said, “there are no constitutional problems that I would foresee. The government cannot censor what’s in the public realm.
”
What the government can censor, Blumenthal said, is a party tracking and selling the private information that comes from an individual’s Internet dealings and purchases without the individual’s knowledge.

Three weeks ago Blumenthal proposed a “Do Not Track” list similar to a Canadian program that would prohibit such conduct by telemarketers and others who use, buy, or sell such information that they surreptitiously obtain without consent. Blumenthal wants next year’s legislature to enact the measure.

“The basic concept is to prevent collecting information without the consumer’s consent,” Blumenthal said.
“If the consumer objects to collecting the information and says, ‘Do not track me when I travel the Internet,’ that wish should be respected, and this law would compel marketers to protect that right under consumer privacy.”

Blumenthal once again shows that he doesn’t understand the topic that he’s attempting to exploit for his quixotic drive to keep his name in the media. Tracking data on the Internet is hardly the problem here, when you have transactional data that is being sold, regardless of the point of origin. It’s one thing for SONY to keep sending me offers on digital camera accessories because I bought and registered a camera with them. It’s another thing when Home Depot keeps sending me offers on bathroom renovations because I recently bought a shower curtain and bath mat at IKEA. The Internet is not the problem. The real issue is who owns your data, you or the company that collects it?

That battle is being waged by many groups and organizations that cater to specific parts of the privacy continuum. Think health care, blogging, political speech, telemarketing and you get an idea of the the wide range discussion going on. A good web site that aggregates the issues is here, privacyrights.org.

Connecticut has contributed to the debate with recent security breaches and lost data. This is another aspect of privacy and Rell weighed in:

Rell noted that many states are examining their privacy laws, security measures, and the kinds of information they collect, manage, and distribute in light of identity theft, fraud, and other computer crimes.

The state has endured several recent incidents of misplaced computers with vast amounts of unprotected personal data. Protective reactions followed soon thereafter.

In October, Rell announced that the Department of Information Technology had selected a new encryption tool for use by state agencies for laptop computers and other mobile computing and storage devices.

On Sept. 10, Rell announced a new mobile computing and storage device security policy requiring agencies to adhere to new restrictions and accountability measures, including mandatory risk assessments and written authorization from the agency head for any instance in which restricted or confidential data must reside on a mobile device for business reasons.

Any data residing on a mobile device under these controlled circumstances must be encrypted, the amount of data and length of time it may reside on the mobile device must be limited, and protections from unauthorized access and disclosure are required.

Rell also directed all agencies to assess and purge sensitive data currently on laptop computers and portable storage devices if there was no compelling business need for the information to be so stored.

“Privacy concerns are constantly evolving,” Rell said. “We must not only keep up with them but do our best to stay ahead of the curve.”

Rell said she will ask state agencies to review private information about residents that the state collects, manages, and distributes.

“While bearing in mind such traditional functions such as tax collection, media and freedom-of-Information requests and law enforcement, I want to ensure that the security of private information within state government is protected,” Rell said.

Maybe she should have a chat with Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd, that is when he moves back to Connecticut on January 4th, 2008.

source: Journal Iquirere, Rell seeks to safeguard citizenry’s private information from online search sites By Harlan Levy, 12/25/2007

source: USA Today, FTC under fire as credit bureaus sell consumers’ data, By Byron Acohido and Jon Swartz, 12/16/2007