and now for my next trick

Fiduciary trust. Rather than Web 2.0 I think we could name the new paradigm in data sharing "What everyone agrees to do and actually does with all my stuff." Everything about Web 2.0 is inherently reliant on all file sharing being done for all the right reasons. All the big companies are on record swearing to be vigilant. Since all that delicious information is packeted in encrypted bits where could it go wrong? Google, Microsoft, ChoicePoint, all the players have a gun to each others' head, promising to be good, or else.
Well, I guess with the biggies and all the software solutions in place we can put data loss behind us as a real issue. All that softsaber rattling sure is impressive. The "solutions" are so sophisticated and the marketing language is so fraught with inside gibberish no one really knows what is going on, but it sure is impressive so it must work, right? Hold on just a minute! Even the word solutions conjures an image intended to make us think that if we plug in a piece of software our data security problems are solved. A hundred years ago that was called snake oil. The guy would come into town, put on a little show, and sell you a bottle of alcohol and cocaine laced mint water for a buck and cure all your ills. With all that alcohol you simply forgot you had a problem, and maybe what you thought was your problem wasn't the problem after all. Whats' the difference with today's' solutions hucksters?

In the final analysis there is only one way to solve the problem of data theft and misuse. I hate being right early but alas, someone has to. Are you ready for the solution? Here it is;
Take the value out of the data. Now, wasn't that easy? No one ever steals anything that is worthless, I guarantee it. Wait a minute, you say you can't take the value out of the data? Then, I posit, you can't solve the problem either. I'm afraid all those solutions are just commerce in the guise of an elixir. As long as the data has value there just as many clever people working day and night to crack the vault as there are folks dedicated to locking it. That's just free enterprise. There is one way to take the value out of the data however. In my next column I promise to show you the only foolproof way to short-circuit the problem of data theft. I will indeed show you how to take the value from the goldmine. Until then..