Storage+of+personal+data

=**Rights of Individuals with respect to storage of personal data:**=

**__Why does data need to be stored?__**
Storing of personal information online has many reasons. Government and law enforcements official argue that access to such information encourages identification of criminals, credit frauds illegal immigration and many more[[[|http://data] exposed via eBay storage: [|http://news.zdnet.co.uk/security/0,1000000189,39218125,00.htm|(Gomm], 2005).]] Some individual web users appreciate the facilities that are provided by storing personal information online as they can store credit card numbers, passwords which make it easier for future purposes. However there are many issues that arise from storing of personal data they are as follows;

Phone numbers, email addresses, letters and even temporary files created by Internet browsers which contained passwords for online banking [[[|http://data] exposed via eBay storage: [|http://news.zdnet.co.uk/security/0,1000000189,39218125,00.htm|(Gomm], 2005)]] are the different types of personal information that can be stored about an individual when purchasing online or simply buying a product using a credit card. As internet software technology became more sophisticated, online information gathering techniques has grown more powerful and precise. Privacy is a big issue as customers don’t know what sort of data is being stored about them
 * Issue: Privacy**

**Issue: Security**
Security is another issue when it comes to storing data, example the outbreak of SARS; government departments at all levels needed to share information with different ministries at each level, all the sharing of information had security risks of data being leaked out. [|(Park, 2004)]

**Issue: Reliability**
This is another issue; information collected about an individual may not be true. Example, personal information that is collected by the hospital may not be true and hence increases the issues of reliability and the wrong information being collected.

**Impact: Supermarkets**
Supermarkets have begun offering affinity programs for frequent shoppers. These programs give consumers a discount in return for line item tracking of their purchases [|(Paul, 2000).] Information like, name, e-mail, address, phone numbers are the sort of information that is recorded by supermarkets. Products that you often buy, when you buy them are also recorded by the supermarket. This is used as a marketing source for the supermarkets to target the products that you buy often through various ways. Information which is stored on the computer for a long time can also be passed on to third parties, schools, or even entrepreneurial business for research purpose. This way information is disclosed to third parties, where they can use the personal information available to them to target their products to you through unwanted e-mails, questionnaires, and even phone calls. However some supermarkets like ‘ The Domain Name Supermarket’ only discloses ones private information when an individual “send offensive, inappropriate or objectionable content anywhere on or to The Domain Name Supermarket or otherwise engage in any disruptive behavior on The Domain Name Supermarket, we can use whatever information that is available to us about you to stop such behavior.”[|TDNSM] This is an issue as customers shopping habits are then reveled and third parties are aware of the different products bought by the individual customer. They then start getting unwanted emails about regular products or even new products that they have/should buy. The Domain Name Supermarket states in their policy that “You have the right to request a copy of the personal information that The Domain Name Supermarket holds about you and to have any inaccuracies corrected. (We charge $30 USD for information requests.)”([|TDNSM]) This is another issue as customer will now have to pay in order to view their own personal information which raises the issue of access of personal information.

**Impact: Health**
Personal information is often passed on to other hospitals and doctors so that the patient can be treated immediately no matter what hospitals they are in. However there have been issues raised due to sharing of information with other hospitals etc; “Part of a Toronto woman's medical record was printed on the back of real estate flyers which were delivered to hundreds of mailboxes.” [|Media Issues] If information like this is leaked out accidently, it will damage the individual’s privacy the individuals might then take legal actions towards this. According to Freedom of Information act, customers have all the rights to view their personal information[|Privacy and your persoanl Information]. Individuals have to pay to view their own personal data. Some customers/patients find this unfair, as they have to pay to view their own personal information. This might be a problem as patients would not pay to update their profiles, if they don’t do this then this is may cause problems when hospitals exchange data to medical experiments.

Updating information? -link
 * Evaluation:**
 * Overall, both areas of impacts have a similar issue, according to Freedom of Information act all customers have the right to view their own personal data however by adding a cost factor to this, customer won’t be encourage to update their personal information. (Health updates) Secondly, while companies store data they need to make sure that the information is up to date to avoid any miss leading information. Also data stored on supermarkets or hospitals server needs to be kept secure to avoid, hackers hacking to get into information and then using it for their personal purpose.**