Best Person of the Week: Beth Givens, Founder and Director, Privacy Rights Clearinghouse

Welcome to our weekly installment of the “Best Person of the Week” post exclusively on the ITAC blog. As many of our readers know, we like to shine a light on someone who is doing an outstanding job in the fight against identity theft. For past couple of weeks, we have been focusing on members of law enforcement. But this week, we have shifted focus a bit to a person that the Consumer Federation of American is honoring this evening at its 2010 Awards Dinner, and has been a tireless advocate for protecting consumer privacy. Who are we talking about?

If you guessed Beth Givens, Founder and Director of the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, then you are correct. Ms. Givens created the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse in 1992 with the mission of raising consumers’ awareness of how technology affects personal privacy, empowering consumers to take action to control their own personal information, responding to specific privacy-related complaints from consumers, and taking consumer complaints to the Hill.

It seems that everyday our privacy is being invaded by the Facebooks of the world and now Google StreetView. Ms. Givens plays a critical role in making sure that privacy is paramount for U.S. citizens. Many people don’t realize just how easily our right to privacy can be chipped away by larger corporate and government interests. Ms. Givens knows this very well and fights to make sure that we control our destinies when it comes to privacy.

So, Ms. Beth Givens, congratulations. You are the “Best Person of the Week.”