To print: Click here or Select File and then Print from your browser's menu

This story was printed from silicon.com, located at http://www.silicon.com/

Story URL: http://comment.silicon.com/editorsblog/0,3800012021,39169376,00.htm

Editor's blog: What your identity is worth
Less than a penny or more than you can afford to lose?

By Steve Ranger

Published: Wednesday 05 December 2007

I always thought the cliche 'like looking for a needle in a haystack' was in need of a 21st century makeover. After all, when was the last time you saw a haystack? And were you looking for a needle?

And so it seems the lost child benefit data row - rumbling on for more than a month now - may have provided us an unexpected replacement for that old phrase. Considering the failure of the search for the discs so far, how long will it be before 'like looking for a CD in the taxman's office' becomes common usage instead?

But what is the real value of the data on those lost CDs? Last week acting Liberal Democrat leader Vince Cable claimed the data on the discs could be worth up to £1.5bn to criminals on the black market.

And this week the HMRC is offering a reward of "up to £20,000" for information that leads to their safe return.

So there are two valuations for a start - £60 a record on the black market, and slightly less than one tenth of one penny per record if you divide the reward money down.

Those different valuations are of course a reflection of the problem - the government has for too long failed to see the value of our personal data (and the need therefore to protect it), while criminals worked out ages ago that it's much easier to use some discarded information to clear out a bank account than it is to bother with balaclavas and get-away cars.

And to you? The value of peace of mind and a good credit rating? Plenty more again, I'd say.

Which of course brings us back to the campaign that silicon.com has been running this year, Full Disclosure, which is calling for honesty about data breaches and better legislation to protect the individual. But it's not just about the consumer - it's also about giving the business a clearer idea of where their responsibilities lie and what to do when things go wrong.

And in the wake of the HMRC revelations it seems a number of public and private organisations have been to the Information Commissioner to confess more sins to do with data. And there will certainly be more revelations to come, and we'll continue to follow them, and to push for better laws.

And you can help too, both as individuals and professionally. Write to your MP and demand changes to the law - point them at the information we've collected about US laws which could help in these situations. And check that your own business has strong safeguards in place to protect the data it holds.

Few could have conceived that such a trivial act - putting a couple of CDs in the post - could have such a big impact. But whatever valuation you choose to put on personal data, one thing is clear - when it is lost or falls into the wrong hands, we all end up paying the price.