Data Protection and Privacy

 A few days ago, T-Mobile announced a data breach consisting of Social Security numbers, drivers license information, and credit cards for over 40 million people. I was a Sprint member until T-Mobile purchased Sprint and all of my customer information was assimilated into their terrible data protection system. No, this is not the first time T-Mobile had a breach and you'd think they would buckle down and strengthen their network to avoid such things.

This is not the first time my data has been breached. Equifax, Target, and smaller company like the parking app used around Chicago. This begs me to ask, when are we going to fix this? First, we need to take data protection and privacy seriously. The social security number you have was not intended for credit reporting. There aren't enough safeguards in the system to protect the money you have invested in social security once a person has your number, and all of the items found on your drivers license. 

Your drivers license and identification should not be stored in some non-government database. In the European Union, there are laws to protect a persons personal information and if at any time that person wants the data deleted, the company hosting it must delete it. Additionally, there are rules as to what can be stored without encryption as to prevent critical information from being exposed. 

Punishments need to be effective. Companies like Target, Equifax, and now T-Mobile have had slaps on the wrists, and legal suits filed against them, but this is not nearly enough. Companies holding this type of information should be required to have and report high intensity security scanning to show where problems within the organizations data protection systems are, and report to a government agency how they are resolving them and when. 

Additionally, T-Mobile did not need to store you driver's license information at all. Their response so far has been to offer 2 years of credit monitoring to each person affected just like Equifax and Target did. This is not even close to enough. The class action suits filed against them also provide no relief. The amount of time, effort, paperwork, and frustration tied to having someone steal your identity is well beyond 2 years of credit monitoring and the possibility of $100 from a class action lawsuit. This bullshit of too big to fail is also wrong. When you jeopardize 40 million people's social security income because you decide to store the personally identifiable information from a drivers license with the record, you should feel what the 40 million people feel. 

Lastly, do you as a citizen even know where your data is and who has is? Do you know where your social security number is stored? Do you know how many places you have loaded your birthday, telephone number, and address? How many places have your credit card information? Who last accessed your medical records? This is a much bigger problem than just credit reporting and we need a major change. 

Who has the best best digital system in the world? Believe or not, Estonia. I invite you to look up the Netflix show "Connected". Besides being a really great series, The episode called Clouds (at the 23;30 marker) shows how a truly digital society can be made, and made securely.  I highly suggest watching. To follow up on that, CNBC has a YouTube video diving into the digital transformation.

In the past, America has always stayed on the technology forefront. But this isn't the case for the legislation and data protection and privacy associated to the citizens. Something has to be done and we need to let our representatives know, it needs to be done right now. Please feel free to copy and paste whatever you like from this post and send it to your representatives.

Look up you House representative or Senate representative and let them know now.