Security Concerns

The article I found is "Yahoo Reduces Time it Stores Users' Personal Data" which can be found at http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122952886987314289.html

Previously Yahoo has stored personally identifing data for up to 13 months. Pressure from privacy advocates and legislators has caused them to reevaluate that and now have realeased that they will only store data up to 90 days. This information is left through an electronic trail from when users look at information on the web. Search engine companys say this is necessary so that they can improve the quality of their services. Google and Microsoft are now being looked at to follow suit, even though in September Google already cut the time they kept the data in half.

I think it's kind of scary that everywhere you go is recorded on the internet and then stored for quite a long period of time. Some of the information can personally identify you and just think if the wrong person got their hands on even just a piece of that information what could happen. People try not to post personal information, but if you type it into a site that it could be recorded. I've got to say this is scarier than thinking the government is listening to your phone calls. I mean you do everything on the internet now days!

My mom works at BWC in Columbus and I remember a few summers ago how an intern left files in his car and it had the personal information of a lot of people around Ohio. Thankfully none of my families information was included, but I had friends that were notified that they were. Nothing has come out of this yet but it's hard to say that nothing ever will at this point. Addresses may change over time, but social security numbers won't.