The immediate future of data security and individual privacy - as far as I can tell - lies in things like disposable identities and identity trading. That is, until we have legal rights guaranteeing us full personal data sovereignty - a development which though we’re making strides is not likely to come to fruition any time soon.

The most reliable solution in the meantime seems to be to create temporary data trails which can be destroyed and which are not easily connected to one another. That is, have multiple email addresses using different domain names, email systems and security systems, and rotate them on a regular basis (wouldn’t it be nice if we had identity management software to help manage this sort of thing?). Same thing could be done with banks and credit cards and permanent addresses. Of course, it’s important to find out about the law before you engage in willful obfuscation of your datawake. You’re trying to create a hassle for somebody trying to create a data profile on you; you shouldn’t be trying to break the law. (That will just land you in jail)

Interestingly, you can see how companies and governments are thinking through these issues if you know how to look for them in the media. Take a look at this article about disposable cell phones, which is currently the closest real-world analog we have for disposable and temporary identities. The article talks about how disposable cell phones are being “linked to” (by them!) terror attacks.

The phones — which do not require purchasers to sign a contract or have a credit card — have many legitimate uses, and are popular with people who have bad credit or for use as emergency phones tucked away in glove compartments or tackle boxes. But since they can be difficult or impossible to track, law enforcement officials say the phones are widely used by criminal gangs and terrorists.

“There’s very little audit trail assigned to this phone. One can walk in, purchase it in cash, you don’t have to put down a credit card, buy any amount of minutes to it, and you don’t, frankly, know who bought this,” said Jack Cloonan, a former FBI official who is now an ABC News consultant.

What they are trying to suggest here is that the dangerous illegal uses of these phones will ultimately trump their legitimate usages. (Also note that the “news consultant” is an acknowledged government plant!) The article goes on to talk about how large purchases of disposable phones (quantities of 60 and 150) made employees at places like Target and Walmart “suspicious” enough to call law enforcement. So now you can be turned over police for buying too many of an otherwise appropriate, acceptable and legal product - especially one which would help you protect your identity and personal securacy.

Some such purchases may have innocent explanations, but even law enforcement officials themselves say disposable phones are sometimes their own phones of choice when operating in hostile environments. The CIA recently used them in a kidnapping in Milan, Italy. Italian authorities were able to track the telephones. But they mostly tracked them to a dead end — the false identities in which they were purchased.

Possible purchasers of disposable cellular phones could also include political extremists, terrorist supporters, sympathizers or others simply shaken by the recent revelations of the spy agency’s widespread monitoring of calls, including calls to and from the United States to foreign countries.

No shit, assholes! Guess what - people don’t want every little thing they do and say to be monitored, recorded and available forever: especially if we’re not the ones who own these materials that are left in our datawakes.

{See also: article on blind detectives who listen in on “terror” calls}