So much talk happens surrounding online Identity Theft, that people often forget about how Identity Theft can take place in the real (physical) world.

If I am a real-world identity thief, and I don’t want to use real methods (instead of virtual methods like hacking) one of the tools I have in my arsenal of ways to get your information is to use the United States Postal Service.

Now you might think this is as simple as just locking your mailbox, but that won’t help you in this situation. One thing that identity thieves can do is actually go to the post office and have your mail put on hold and pick it up themselves.

Just as one owns physical property and real estate, Intellectual Property (IP) allows people exclusive ownership of their creativity and innovation. It gives these people control on their innovations for which they are rewarded and encouraged to create further for the benefit of others.

The Intellectual Property Rights have their roots in the original Constitution which was designed by the Founding Fathers of the nation. It states that the Congress will have the power “to promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries.”

Just when you think we’ve finally reached a new level in our lives by owning a personal computer as we would a television set we now expect our local and county governments to also include themselves by using technology more in order to provide the services we expect from them to be much more easier.

However, this is not the case. Here’s why. I submitted a traffic citation to the Chicago traffic revenue department and had to wait for one month to get it to clear. I had placed calls to the department and most of them were on the re-dial button several times per day just to get through. Finally, when I did get through, I was either re-directed or told that it hasn’t been ‘pulled’ yet.