Eve of Destruction

An interesting development on the privacy front, as the FTC jumps in with new rules for every employer:

"On Wednesday, a new federal law kicked in requiring those who handle other people's personal information to dispose of the data properly. Recycling the paperwork isn't good enough -- it must be destroyed, the rule says, rendered useless to anyone who might stumble upon it.
The disposal rule, developed by the Federal Trade Commission, covers, all employers, large and small -- even those with only one employee.
"You might be surprised," warned FTC attorney Catherine Armstrong. "If you hire a contractor or a nanny, you are covered by this law."
Even if you ordered a background check on your kid's coach, or nanny, or -- as is the latest trend in online dating -- on a prospective blind date, the law applies to you."

Of course, we are all handling private information as if it were our own mother's PHI, right? The same precautions that work for PHI can work for pretty much any data we don't want spread around, from embarrassing love poetry we wrote in highschool to customer lists and employee SS numbers. It is all just data, and can be protected in exactly the same fashion.
Read it and learn, from MSNBC.