7/13/05 The personal information of 57000 Blue Cross Blue Shield of Arizona customers was stolen from a Phoenix based Managed care company.

5/23/06 The names and personal information of more than 26 million veterans was recently stolen from the home of a Veterans Affairs employee when a burglar stole a laptop.

3/29/05 A University of California, Berkeley computer laptop containing information on nearly 100,000 alumni was stolen from an office.

6/23/06 US Federal Trade Commission reports two laptop computers containing personal data of 110 people was stolen from a locked vehicle.

These new passports will store all of your personal data, including name, address, nationality, a picture, a digitized fingerprint and just about everything else needed for identity fraud. Now, I’m not trying to make a statement about it. I’m just commenting about some recent thefts of data. I certainly hope, however, that I won’t have to fly internationally until I’m guaranteed my data is safe. I guess I’ll be stuck in the good ole US for quite sometime!