Securing Your Identity Identity theft is on the rise in the United States and Globally. The Federal Trade Commission advised that there are about nine million cases of identity theft. People who had their identity stolen often feel like they were violated. Any individual can have their identity compromised in numerous ways. Different institutions store personal information. There are several organizations that have social security numbers, bank account numbers, and credit card numbers. Colleges and Universities have people personal information stored in their databases that could be hacked. There are several companies that offer options to people to protect their identity. Most credit card companies offer the option of identity
There are companies such as EXelate a Manhattan company that acts as an exchange for the buying and selling of people’s data; RapLeaf, a data-mining company that mined people’s user IDs; and Intellidyn, a company that buys and sells data; these companies gather personal information about individuals and sells pieces of information and misinformation for fraction of a penny to private companies (Stein). The most valuable commodity in the world is information and it is that information that hundreds of companies if not thousands are using to collect data about people. Daily, personal information is being bought and sold. Every time someone goes to a link on their computer, uses their credit card, or even goes to the grocery store, information is being gathered about that individual. The most important data a company can collect about an individual is their Social Security number; that number rules all. It is that number that tells the world who each and every person is. All of these fraudulent activities were made possible using Social Security numbers and the number of organizations that have that information is often over looked. Colleges have almost the same amount of information in their database as any local bank. Some of the information in a College’s database can include names, Social Security numbers and driver's license, address and date of birth. Just think about the information being asked to provide to a school when