In the world today, most people are often more than happy to supply personal information willingly on the vague promise of token rewards for example loyalty card schemes. Much information may be gathered about us while we go about our daily lives whether it is withdrawing cash from an ATM or travelling through cyberspace.

It is said that data protection serves to protect us from our personal information being treated, used or applied in a harmful manner and in breach of the basic human right of privacy. However having the same standards of data protection across the European Union means that personal information may travel freely between the EU member states.

Today�s technology makes it easier to cross match this personal information with other information already gathered about us so as to compile a full picture of our personal interests, consumer habits and private lives. It is important that people realise that everyone�s personal details may be mistreated given the current reliance placed on computerised information, mistreatment of person information may result in the private individual suffering consequences such as the unjustified refusal of credit, housing, employment or promotion. The opportunities for grave abuse of such wealth of information, right across the private and public sectors, are plentiful.

For instance, just recently the face of a prominent Skyeman was �stolen� by an infamous fraudster know to be the head of a company called �Financial Securities�. This company is know to be involved in various �lotto scams� and what are known as the �Nigerian Letter Cons�.

Also there has been a marked increase in the number of fraudulent banks, investment houses and credit institutions appearing on the Internet. Anyone entering their personal details is likely to find their identity duplicated. If they transfer money, it will be lost.

However. It is not only fruadsters that will use your information to their advantage, there is the major multi-national corporations like SkyTV (or SpyTV as it should be know by) for instance. Did you know that at any given time, that little black(or in some cases silver) box that sits upon your tv delivering hundreds of channels of nonsense can hold up to 64,000 bits of information about you and your family? Every time a channel is changed, a favourite program watched, or that new blender with the 10 brilliant attachments bought from QVC information is stored in your box and sent back to the company.