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The docu-film, “Erasing David” tells the story of David Bond – a man who attempts to ‘run away’ for one month and challenges private investigators, Cameron Gowlett and Duncan Mee, from Cerberus to try and to track him down.

The investigators build up a picture of David by setting up a fake facebook account and inviting his friends to join, rooting through his dad’s waste bin, following his friends on Twitter and getting access to documents presumed by most to be confidential (i.e. medical records).

You don’t have to be a Investigator to be able to access personal information – it seems anybody with a purpose and a hint of technical know-how can get access to our details. It’s not helped by the digitisation of many of our personal records either but we don’t have to just accept that we’ll have our identity swindled … In fact David has some advice for those looking to protect themselves as much as possible. Firstly register with mail and telephone preferences; secondly ask your doctor not to load your details onto the NHS database and finally shred anything at all containing your personal details. It doesn’t have to be an expensive business – if you are shredding at home, you can buy home-use shredders for under £30.

It’s difficult to prevent the amount of personal information appearing online particularly when it is led by Government initiatives but in the mean time we can minimise the likelihood of being ‘tracked down’ like David.