evilrouters.net

according to the international association of privacy professionals, january 28th is “data privacy day”:

north america joins 27 european countries to celebrate data privacy day 2008. the day will feature several efforts to promote the importance of data protection, including a meeting at duke university among european and u.s. privacy experts.

the iapp is encouraging privacy professionals to contact local schools, colleges and universities and offer to give a presentation on or during the week of january 28 about privacy using the materials provided. our goal is to have privacy professionals all over the country giving presentations to students about the importance of privacy today. details about presentations that happen during the week of january 28 should be sent directly to kim macneill at kim@privacyassocation.org.

as john bambenek mentioned on the sans handler’s diary, however:

“the important note about this effort is that it focuses its attention on the weakest area of privacy protection, the individual themselves. if people do not protect their own information (for instance, by putting their entire lives in their facebook profile) there is little other groups can do to prevent the misuse of that information.”

i just wish i had heard about this earlier. i work in higher education (college students are the most prominent facebook users) and could have done some presentations there. my hometown, an hour away, also has its share of parents who i’m sure would have benefitted from something like this. alas, maybe next year.

if you’re interested in seeing how much personal information i have on my facebook profile, add me as a friend!