Loss of personal data on still on the rise

An article by Mark Boslet in the San Jose Mercury News reports that 2007 was 40% worse than 2006, in terms of number of reported personal data breaches in the US; however the number of records compromised grew sixfold, to 128 million.

There's a good chance that at least one of those compromised records was yours.

"We think people are going to learn from their mistakes, but they aren't," said Mary Monahan, senior analyst at Javelin Strategy & Research, a Pleasanton research firm.

This is a clear example of market failure; more government intervention will apparently be needed to counter widespread organizational complacency. We would hardly know anything about it at all if California had not enacted its notification law.