The data privacy breaches involving the latest technology are getting bigger and more worrying. Sony is investigating the theft of personal information of about 100 million of its video game users and as many as 60 million e-mails may be affected by the hacking of the consumer marketing company Epsilon's computer system. Apple and Google are under fire for unauthorised collection of location data from mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets. It is obvious that when it comes to our valuable personal details, companies are thinking not like banks, as we would expect, but collectors, aggregators and sharers.
When we sign up to an online service or buy the latest mobile phone, security is not uppermost in our minds. We are thinking instead about convenience, entertainment or a new experience. Internet and wireless services make these possible at any place and time. They can be ours with little effort in seconds with a click or press of a button or touch of a screen.
The data thefts over the past month or so should give us pause for thought, though. Of these, Sony's may yet prove to be the biggest ever. Names, e-mails, phone numbers, birth dates and perhaps credit card details were snatched in raids between April 17 and 19 on its PlayStation and online entertainment networks. The breaches are damaging for the company, but could prove as troubling for the victims if those behind the attacks have malicious intent.
Credit card information was not involved in the break-in at Epsilon, which manages e-mail communications for premium companies, among them Disney, JP Morgan Chase, Lacoste, Marks & Spencer and Marriott. Each year, it sends out 40 billion e-mails - and the addresses of 2 per cent of its clients, and customer names, were taken when unauthorised entry was gained to its system on March 30. Taking e-mail addresses would not seem to be as troubling as credit card data, but in the hands of the wrong people, they can be just as damaging. They can be used to gain access to bank accounts or for what is known as phishing - requesting confidential information over the internet under false pretences.
Apple and Google are locked in a privacy issue of their own making. They are trying to convince users of iPhones, iPads and Android handsets that they are not trying to track them. Revelations that the devices collect and store location data have naturally prompted questions about what the information is being used for. Lawmakers, their eyes on privacy legislation, are as interested.
Reading the fine print of agreements is essential, but legislating to ensure that companies put the rights of users first is not straightforward. Laws are national, but on-line data flows almost instantly and freely across borders. From place to place, there is disagreement about what information should be protected. And there is an even more fundamental problem - there is no such thing as a totally secure computer system or network.