Waiter, there's some data in my soup

OK, firstly an apology for being rather quiet on my blog recently. Christmas and work seem to be conspiring against me. But something in the press really fired me into action.

It actually started when one of my colleagues at work asked me to write a piece on "best practices in data management" (stop yawning at the back...). It's a topic I know well having worked for many years in data-centric environments. But as I wrote my epic it occurred to me that some of the fundamentals around data, and in particular data privacy, are more grounded in individual awareness than they are in corporate protocols or policy making. When it comes down to it, in today's world people just simply need to be more aware of data, what it means to them, and what they need to do about helping it remain in the right hands. Data is simply part of life now, in the same way as food, water or The Archers.

The recent debacles in the UK around losing sensitive data really do illustrate this point very, very well. Clearly, those involved have little awareness of what data means and how it needs to be protected or, quite simply, they would never have done what they did. If you asked them whether they would be happy posting the entire contents of their wallet - cash and cards - in an unrecorded letter then I would be amazed if anyone would say yes. But because data is a big mish-mash of text and numbers (usually sitting on a rather dull looking CD-ROM) then somehow people completely miss the value of it. It's obviously too intangible for most people to get their heads around. Yet, as I say, data is simply part of everyone's life now. We've opened Pandora's Data Box and we should just get our heads around what it means. And that means you, me and everyone else need to understand that data is both important and valuable, especially where it relates directly to us. And, in many respects, it is potentially even more valuable than cash and cards.

Now where did I put that envelope.....