Information Incontinence

I was on a call the other day working on a family project when the other party asked for my cell phone number. I handed it over on two conditions: (1) she throw it away after the project was completed, and (2) I made her swear to not enter my cell phone number into any computer. Immediately following this conversation my girlfriend overheard me muttering, "Computers are dangerous." Let me explain.

When it comes to preventing information leakage … the best rule is:  "Don’t ever let the data be placed into digital form."

Then for extra protection it is best not to ever speak it.  And, in coming years, it will be best not to ever think it either. (See P300 post below)

RELATED POSTS:

P300 "Brain Fingerprinting": A Very Freaky Future Indeed

How Many Copies of Your Data? Is Somewhat Like Asking: How Many Licks to the Center of the Tootsie Pop?

Comments

[Jim Harper]

You must have listened to my podcast yesterday. Nice work, Grasshopper.

http://www.cato.org/dailypodcast/jimharper_oncemoreintoabreach_20080102.mp3

[Carl Kessler]

Is it feasible to have a pool of "throwaway" cellphone numbers (or at least a couple) that map to a single cellphone, but which you can control (e.g., time out or cycle through)?

The analogy is my home alarm system. There's a master code, but my cleaning person has a throwaway code. It let's them in, but allows me to track their entry separately and turn off whenever I like.

The same for cellphones would be great - I could cycle through 2 or 3 throwaway numbers and know that my primary cell number isn't out there...

[Mad_tony]

bit like throwaway email addresses but some last longer than others for some reasons. Some sites have better spam traps :-)