In the past couple months I have been notified that my personal information may have been obtained when some files went missing from a mutual fund office, and I have my credit card re-issued by the bank due to the loss of some data from somewhere.
This frustrates me, and infuriates me. I take precautions to prevent ID theft, and someone else can lose a laptop/harddrive/back up file containing the critical information for thousands of people.
Coreman has a bunch of links to info about identity management.
What is making me post about is a return I made to Office Depot today. The receipt has a barcode that the clerk scanned. After scanning the returned items, he hands me a slip to sign that is my credit card credit. I realized quickly that I never handed over my credit card.
Somewhere Office Depot may be storing my credit card number. Great. How secure is their datacentre? Some day maybe there will be the control I desire, but for now why should I be expected to live with always being concerned that some company I shop at stores my personal info and has the potential to lose it?