вЂњOur digital footprint has become so much more expansive,вЂќ he says. Grant Gelven, Product Development Scientist at Intersections Inc., agrees. вЂњThose two waves have made so much of our lives public and broadly collected and shared,вЂќ she says. вЂњWhen e-commerce took off in the early 2000s, companies from which we bought products and services started collecting our data, including our name, address and payment details.вЂќ Soon after, she says, social media initiated the next upsurge in exposure, throwing open the door to a wealth of information about individuals, such as where they shopped and other habits and preferences.

вЂњJust prior to five years ago, our personal information was not really that exposed,вЂќ she explains. Melba Amissi, Chief Operating Officer (COO) of Intersections Inc., attributes the huge and rapid spike in identity theft to the birth first of e-commerce and then social media. Now, the company estimates that as many as 15 million Americans have their identities compromised every year. helped establish the identity and privacy protection industry by facilitating consumer access to their annual credit reports.

Identity theft has risen dramatically since the late 1990s, when Intersections Inc. Never before have criminals been able to get hold of such vast quantities of once tightly protected information-including social security numbers, birth dates and passwords-and use it for fraudulent purposes. Unfortunately, the ease with which people now use mobile devices or go online to communicate and transact also significantly heightens their risk of identity theft. Business challenge story Preempting identity theftДigital technologies have changed peopleвЂ™s lives in a remarkably short time, including how they shop, socialize and bank.

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