beSpacific linked to two stories today: the first is the  Privacy Rights Clearinghouse’s updated Chronology of Data Breaches Reported Since the ChoicePoint Incident and the second is a Newsweek article on Why Privacy Won’t Matter (about advertising on Google and Yahoo).

Whilst both chronicle the ease with which personal data can be obtained, the data breaches chronology shows that physical offline security (eg lost or stolen computers and backup tapes) is more prevalent than hackers. Perhaps we should be starting with real world awareness of the importance of security while we are giving away our information online.