Ethics for the Information Age, Chp. 5

In this chapter of the reading, I was most interested in the topic of identity theft. It's such a scary thought, but one that everyone definitely needs to be aware of. The closest I've ever come to this issue was when I had a roommate whose credit card company notified her because they noticed suspicious activity on her account. What a lucky break for her! Unfortunately, we can't always count on being that lucky. In the text, the author discusses the REAL ID Act, which would essentially be a national ID card for citizens of the US. I can agree with points made for both sides of this issue. I definitely think that we need to have stricter guidelines for getting a driver's license (multiple forms of ID for example). Also, I have known so many people over the years (especially in college!) who were able to get their hands on a reliable fake ID. It seems there should be some way to make the IDs harder to counterfeit. So in these ways, I think the REAL ID Act would be a good thing. However, on the flip side, there are concerns that too much information would be available in one file. This is a disturbing thought, but I can't really think of any viable alternatives. So basically, this part of the chapter really made me think about things that my family and I need to do to try and safeguard ourselves against identity theft. I think our best defense in this case is keeping ourselves informed.