Information security at Hotels

Posted by Chelsey Stanton , Friday, April 23, 2010 10:34 PM

Hello all
      For today's blog I thought I would try and focus on what kind of systems the Hotels use, and whether or not they are taking the proper security cautions in protecting my identity when I rent a room at their establishments.  So For today I'll look at a Large Popular Hotel, what systems they use, and then Small, independent hotels...


Hilton
  Hilton is a highly esteemed hotel that many travelers have frequented in the past years.  But, whenever you stay at a hotel like this. Do you ever stop and think "golly is my information safe in the hands of these people".   If you use a rewards program, obviously they remember you and store your information.   So to be honest. The only reason I am bringing this up, is because of  a case we were discussing in one of my classes this week.    It was discussing just how easy it is to steal someone's identity.  So lets discuss the number of items that a hotel would have to keep you safe.  for hilton here is what they say.

Wow thats a lot of different information that they give you.  I looked through many of these and couldn't find the name of the program they used to ecrypt and store people's personal information.  I'm guessing as a customer your supposed to use blind faith that your information will not be given to a third party.  Want to comment on what you think??  can you find the company they use?  feel free to comment!
Next lets look at yet another hotel and the security in their hotels. Now perhaps we could look at a competitor to Hilton.  Such as  Hyatt  Ok here we go.  On a random Hyatt website I again went down to the bottom of the page and found the Privacy policy that they are implementing on a day to day basis.
From what I could see they have a much more extensive and interesting layout for explaining how they use your information, and what they do to protect it.  Here is an exert of
    1) they introduce the policy.
    2) the application of the policy
    3) types of personal information we collect
    4) How we use personal information
    5) Disclosure of personal information
    6) Centralized Data Processing Activities
    7) Information We collect when you visit us Online
    HALT
        This part is interesting....   They actually tell us how they protect your security with cookie technology

    Because the security of your personal information is important to us, we use Secured Socket Layer ("SSL") software with up to 128-bit encryption in order to encrypt the personal information that you provide to us. If your browser is SSL enabled (which most are) your transmission of personal information to us online will be encrypted. You can verify whether your personal information is transmitted using SSL encryption by confirming the symbol of a closed lock or solid key on the bottom bar of your browser window. You can also verify that your personal information will be encrypted using SSL encryption by making sure that the prefix for the web address listed for that page has changed from "http" to "https". If you do not see the appropriate symbol and the "https" prefix, you should not assume that the personal information that you are being asked to provide will be encrypted prior to transmission.
    The personal information we collect from you online is stored by us and/or our service providers on databases protected through a combination of physical and electronic access controls, firewall technology and other reasonable security measures. Nevertheless, such security measures cannot prevent all loss, misuse or alteration of personal information and we are not responsible for any damages or liabilities relating to any such incidents
     8)Choice
Conclusion:   That is pretty much what I wanted to cover for this blog. I don't think I should inundate you with too much information,  I want you to be able to read this happily.   I am also going to let you know that i'm open to suggestions on what I should blog. So feel free to leave some sort of comments  :D
thank you for reading my blog yet again. I know its not terribly awesome but I try my best
Chelsey



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Location: Albuquerque, NM, USA

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