Tom Zetter gets it right.

[snip]

Less than two years into the great cultural awakening to the
vulnerability of personal data, companies and institutions of every
shape and size — like the data broker ChoicePoint, the credit card
processor CardSystems Solutions, media companies like Time Warner and
dozens of colleges and universities across the land — have collectively
fumbled 93,754,333 private records.

Or at least that’s the rough figure the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, a
consumer advocacy organization in San Diego, has tallied thus far.


[snip]

More:
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/25/technology/25link.html

- ferg

p.s. If this doesn't disturb you, you don't understand or
appreciate the problem.


--
"Fergie", a.k.a. Paul Ferguson
 Engineering Architecture for the Internet
 fergdawg(at)netzero.net
 ferg's tech blog: http://fergdawg.blogspot.com/