While government agencies are submitted to legal requirements that protect your personal information, other businesses are not. This makes it vitally important to take steps protecting your information yourself and knowing who has it and what they are doing with it.

State laws do have requirements for the disposal of personal records but the manner of disposal can vary depending on the nature of the information and the resources available to the business. If you do business which requires you to keep personal information on record you must check with local law regarding the disposal of these records.

Fair Information Practice Principles

While the law is still catching up to the needs of individual privacy protection, Europe, Canada and the USA have created a guideline of processes for collecting and using personal information. This guide is called the ¡®Fair Information Practice Principles¡¯. It outlines the safeguards necessary to ensure the use of personal information is fair and to protect privacy.

The core principles outlined in the Fair Information Practice Principles are: Notice/Awareness; Choice/Consent; Access/Participation; Integrity/Security; and Enforcement/Redress.

Here is a brief outline of these principles:

Notice/Awareness

Notice and awareness requires businesses requesting personal information to disclose their information practices before collecting information. The following principles listed would be included in the notice.

Choice/Consent

Choice and consent give the individual the ability to allow or restrict the use of personal information beyond the transaction being initiated. Opt-in or opt-out choices include how much personal information is included and what it may be used for.

Access/Participation

Access and participation requires the individual to be able to access, correct or verify their personal information on record. The means of accessing and making corrections must be timely and inexpensive. How serious is identity theft? Protect yourself, get free adware download and protect your online security.

Integrity/Security

Integrity and security refer to the business¡¯ steps to maintain accurate records, secure the information and destroy records in an appropriate manner. What can you do to prevent identity theft? Get your free $97 PC Security book at http://www.pc-tool.info/

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