Here is some practical advice on protecting yourself from identity theft.

Twelve Ways to protect yourself from Identity Theft

Every year thousands of Canadians are victims of identity theft. Although the number of identity theft victims is relatively small, the financial impact to an individual whose identity is stolen can be profound. In this article, Digital Home examines what identity theft is, how it happens, suggests twelve ways you can protect yourself from it, and finally what steps to take if you think you are a victim.

There is an important story today about plans to block access to hundreds of child pornography sites on a national scale. There is an interesting discussion happening at Michael Geist’s blog:

Michael Geist – Project Cleanfeed Canada

[One side] I do think that blocking hundreds of child porn sites will provide some measure of protection for the overwhelming majority of the population who are not seeking to access such content yet may inadvertently come across it. That is a clear societal harm and this has the potential to help address it.
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[Another side] It seems that the use-case here is quite muddled. Is this really about stopping people from *inadvertently* seeing bad content? That’s a pretty narrow goal for such a sweeping program. Is this a real social ill? Does it really happen all that often in the course of web-browsing?

A few of us were talking last night about recent security problems with using debit and credit cards, and I was predicting a return to cash. Here is a recent article detailing the experiences in the UK.

Britons are Europe’s biggest victims of card fraud

Britain is the fraud capital of Europe, with almost 20 per cent of the population having been a victim of electronic card fraud.
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as a result of card fraud, 33 per cent of Europeans said the experience had made them favour cash over electronic payment
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almost a third of card fraud victims are never reimbursed for their loss by their card provider, despite claims to the contrary by banks
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It’s incredible how many people across Britain have fallen victim to card fraudsters and unsurprising that so many victims favour a return to cash
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consumers were not being “told the full story”.

Here is a description of the security risks associated with the UK’s new RFID-enabled passports

Cracked it!

The Home Office insists that UK passports are secure and among the best in the world, but not everyone agrees. Last week, an EU-funded body entitled the Future of Identity in the Information Society (Fidis) issued a declaration on machine-readable travel documents such as RFID-chipped passports and ID cards. It said the technology was “poorly conceived” and added: “European governments have effectively forced citizens to adopt new … documents which dramatically decrease their security and privacy and increase risk of identity theft.”

Canada’s national privacy law is the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA). That law is about to be reviewed and here is an article by Michael Geist on possible improvements.

Hearings Offer Chance to Fix Holes in Privacy Law

With privacy breaches and identity theft concerns popping up regularly, Canadians can ill-afford to wait another five years for meaningful privacy protections. While few observers expect privacy law reform to emerge as a top legislative priority, the PIPEDA review presents an excellent opportunity to build the foundation for future change.