IntroductionPersonal data is quickly becoming a commodity in today's high-tech world. This information is used by banks, investment and brokerage firms, credit card merchants, government agencies (local, state and federal), and consumer product companies. Most people probably don't realize how much information is shared between companies, or how often it is done. Many companies sell and share customer data to help sell products and discover what new products they should make. Other uses include collecting information on inventory levels to help better determine what types of products are purchased at which store, when and how often. This can be used for inventory and production, to ensure that the store (or chain stores, like Safeway and Long's Drugs) can have products available when they need them. However, the same personal data is compromised and violates privacy. . Companies have become bolder in their attempts to collect, share and sell data. The latest trend is to outsource data to third-party companies for data processing, which can be done at a lower cost. One of the main problems with this approach is that a lot of very sensitive data is sent, which could be dangerous in the wrong hands. Most companies require customers to “opt out” to prevent their data from being shared with a company's affiliates. This process requires the customer to explicitly tell the company not to share their data, which typically takes the form of a website or mailed survey. These surveys are often rejected by consumers, so they don't even realize they are giving companies the green light to sell and share their data. A new movement is beginning to grow, where...... middle of document ......nstitution Policy Brief #29, February 1998.http://www.brook.edu/comm/policybriefs/pb029/ pb29.htm[17] Simon Davie, "Europe towards the United States: No privacy, no trade", Wired - Number 6.05. May 1998http://www.wired.com/wired/6.05/europe.html[18] Swedish Personal Register Act, recent amendmentshttp://www.dsv.su.se/~jpalme/society/personal-register -law .html#recentchanges[19] Declan McCullagh, "US Twitchy on EU Data Privacy", Wired News, October 16, 1998http://www.wired.com/news/news/business/story/15671.htmlSuggested Online ResourcesPrivacy International - http://www.privacyinternational.org/Internet Privacy - http://www.netatty.com/privacy/U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office for Civil Rights (HIPAA) - http://www .hhs.gov /ocr/hipaa/Electronic Privacy Information Center - http://www.epic.org/Privacy 2000 - http://www.privacy2000.org/