There has been a lot of debate among nerds about the privacy and security implications of Google and Apple. How much is privacy worth? Is Google going too far? Is Apple protecting us? Does it even matter anymore?
For me, this is not a debate I care to take part in. My information is already out in the world. Target, Carefirst BlueCross Blueshield, Chick Fil-A, Adobe and most recently, the Federal Government have been breached.
Since the incident was identified, OPM has partnered with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s U.S. Computer Emergency Readiness Team (US-CERT), and the Federal Bureau of Investigation to determine the impact to Federal personnel. And OPM immediately implemented additional security measures to protect the sensitive information it manages.
I have worked as a contractor for two separate US Government agencies. I haven’t heard if my information was one of the 4,000,000 people leaked in the hack on the Office of Personnel Management. But it would not surprise me if it was.
It feels like every week there is some other places letting my information out into the world. It’s no surprise after looking at this list of data breaches in 2015. These reports cover 103,340,565 records. That’s about 1 in 3 US Citizens that could have had their information leaked into the world.
I’m not interested in having a theoretical debate over my privacy and what Google or Apple are or are not going to do with my photos when my credit card, social security number and every other bit of identifying, personal information about me have or may have already been exposed. I’d be much more curious to see if active security scans are being done and if security people are on staff at places I trust my with you