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While it might come as a surprise to many, it is actually the case that personal data protection in the United States may be weaker than in many other parts of the world. With the focus on the right to privacy that so many people believe in when it comes to just about anything that might be considered private, the fact that a large amount of personal data is available to anyone can be a bit disconcerting. Currently, in the United States, the data privacy cannot be effectively ensured. Additionally, the laws and regulations overseeing it are somewhat weak. For a fact, just about anyone who needs it can obtain a report on someone's credit who might be applying for job or purchasing an automobile, for example. And there is comprehensive set of regulations that control data collection practices. When it comes to the use, storage or acquisition of personal data, the weaknesses in the system can greatly affect how secure it is. This should serve to give pause when one realizes that anybody who takes the time to enter in data that has been collected on someone is considered to be the owner of that data even if they never took the time to obtain permission to to gather it. And though many people think that such acts as the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) actually contains more provisions that are concerned with ensuring the efficient flow of personal data that has been collected rather than instituting strong safeguards to ensure that the data that has been collected is protected to the strongest degree possible. And though a right to privacy -- as enumerated by the Supreme Court in a landmark decision some years ago -- exists within the Constitution and Bill of Rights of the United States, it is somewhat disconcerting to realize that almost no state, with the exception of California, officially recognizes an individual right to privacy. When it comes to protecting the privacy of data that has been collected and stored in information systems there are a set of effective tools that are known in the collective sense as "privacy enhancing technologies, " or PET. These consist of certain computer tools, mechanisms and applications which can allow an online user to protect the privacy of information that might allow a person to be identified. A few examples of such enhancing technologies are mechanisms that can generate random IP addresses and disposable e-mail addresses along with what are called anonymizers. These tools help wash a person's identity through many different channels so that the end result is no reliable identity can be established while a person is online. Personal data protection and what it means to many of us will become an ever increasing point of concern as more and more people begin to conduct activities on the Internet and in cyberspace in general. Today, it is more important than ever that strong protection and privacy enhancement tools are used and that existing laws be strengthen such that they work to prevent theft or loss of personal data.
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