When we combine otherwise unthreatening databases, the resulting database may show personal data that the consumers feel is private (e.g., patterns of spending and placing consumers into categories). But many organizations these days collect individual information, including your credit card provider, your bank, your creditors, and virtually any retail store in which you use a credit card or other identifying customer number. Who owns the information that is collected? Do you, the person who initially provided information to the collector? Or the collecting organization that spent the resources to save the information in the first place?

The following online resources may be helpful:

(1) http://ethics.csc.ncsu.edu/

(2) http://cpsr.org/issues/