Happy Data Privacy Day!

Who knew? I was greeted this morning with a Tweet about Data Privacy Day and since it's a topic that is on a lot of minds as we do more and more personal business online, I had to investigate further.

According to The Privacy Projects:

Businesses develop software, build hardware and provide services designed to enhance individual productivity, communications and safety.  We have come to depend on mobile communications, instant access to information, and intelligent services.  We are empowered by these technologies in ways that those who have lived before us could never have imagined.

Despite all of the benefits of these technologies, doubts and worries persist about just how much personal information is collected, stored, used, and shared to provide these convenient and pervasive tools and services.

Data Privacy Day is an international celebration of the dignity of the individual expressed through personal information.  In this networked world, in which we are thoroughly digitized, with our identities, locations, actions, purchases, associations, movements, and histories stored as so many bits and bytes, we have to ask – who is collecting all of this – what are they doing with it  – with whom are they sharing it?  Most of all, individuals are asking ‘How can I protect my information from being misused?’  These are reasonable questions to ask – we should all want to know the answers.

Their website provides lots of information and links to issues that business and consumers face as well as tips on what one can do to protect one's privacy.

I have heard many job seekers who are concerned about the kind of information that potential employers are requesting online just during the job application process...long before a job seeker is narrowed down as an actual candidate for a position. This includes the agreements that one agrees to online just during the application stage, such as a credit check, drug screening, providing one's social security number, and more.  A job seeker wants to provide sufficient information to be winnowed down into the candidate pool and invited to interview, but may feel distrustful of an employer that requires so much information at this early stage.

I don't have the answers to this as it must be considered on a case by case basis, depending on the job that one is interested in and the potential employer. In other words, how much do you want this job and how badly do you want to work for this employer?