PRIVACY

Privacy is the right to be left alone when you want to be, to have control over you own personal information, and not to be observed without your consent.

Your personal information is being collected every time you write a check, use a credit card, fill out a card or form with your name, address, and other information. Where does all this information end up? In databases and data warehouses, that's where. It's catalogued and analyzed by companies who use the information to plan new and improved products and generate marketing plans, among other things.

If you doubt how much is known about you try typing your phone number, with the area code, into the Google search box. If you're in Google's phone book, your name and address will pop up along with the names of others at the same address. As if that's not enough, you'll also be able to click on Yahoo! Maps and MapQuest to get a map to your house.

Many companies are in business to collect and sell information about where people go on the Web and what they do there. For instance, what sites do they visit, what pages within those sites do they view and for how long. What do they download, what do they buy, how much of it, and at what price.

• DoubleClick
• Engage

Many organizations and individuals are concerned about the vast amount of information that is freely floating around cyberspace about all of us. These organizations want laws and guidelines in place that keep a check on what type of personal information can be gathered and what it can be used for.

• Privacy.org
• Privacy International
• Electronic Privacy Information Center
• Privacy Rights Clearinghouse

Other than the Privacy Act 1974 which put severe limits on what federal agencies could do with private information, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) that went into effect in 2003 is the most sweeping privacy legislation in the U.S.

• Notify patients about their privacy rights and how their information can be used. If you've gone to a doctor, dentist, or pharmacy lately, you were probably asked to sign a form stating that you were given the organization's privacy policy and you probably got a pamphlet also.
• Implement privacy procedures throughout the organization to safeguard personal medical information.
• Train employees so that they thoroughly understand privacy procedures and requirements.
• Assign an individual to be responsible for seeing that personal medical information is protected.
• Make sure that patient records that have individually identifiable health information cannot be access by those who do not need to know the information.

• Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services
• HIPAA.org
• HIPAA Advisory

A similar law, the Financial Modernization Act of 1999, applies to financial institutions. Again, the intent is to protect personal financial information. The law applies not only to financial institutions that hold people's money, it also applies to agencies that process such information, such as credit reporting agencies.

• Financial Privacy
• Financial Privacy Resources
• Consumers Financial Privacy Act