I was just reading through Jeff Atwood's excellent blog post, An Inalienable Right to Privacy, and I could not agree with him more. We as consumers must demand that our privacy be respected by (1) not providing information when it is not needed and (2) purchasing from vendors that respect our privacy.
I will go further, however.
We need to have laws on the books that allow us to sue corporations and individuals who abuse our private financial information and contact information. The Do-Not-Call list is not enough in my opinion.
Identity theft is an extremely serious issue, and the vendor who negligently releases private information should be as liable as the individual who tries to abuse it later in my opinion.
What do you think?
Jonathan Starr