Sitting in the crowd at a get-together measuring the angles at the intersection of privacy, identity and innovation made one thing clear: the digital divide is no longer about whether one has access to the Internet but whether once you get there, you know what personal data is being collected and how it is being used.

Here is how the conference planners put it: “While there are big challenges associated with managing and securing the vast amounts of data being generated in our increasingly connected world, there are also huge opportunities for innovation if done properly.”

The pivot happened sometime after the release last year of the National Broadband Plan from the FCC, the response to Congress which asked for a plan “to ensure every American has ‘access to broadband capability.’”  And just before the Direct Marketing Association announced this year that it was “beginning enforcement activities to ensure industry compliance with the Self-Regulatory Program for Online Behavioral Advertising…”

The two halves of the digital world have moved from those who “have” access and the “have-nots,” to those who know what and how their personal information is being collected and used and those who don’t.  The new divide will only grow, too, as new businesses are built on the increasingly granular ability to collect and mine data to target customers and existing companies begin to look in new ways at the mountains of data they already hold.

But while government can have a direct role in solving the macro problem of access, its ability to foster privacy and data protection at the micro level is less certain.  Self-governance solutions like the DMA’s is a start, but it ultimately falls to individual consumers to speak for ourselves.  The question is, How?

One way may be emerging in the wake of the massive data breach suffered by Sony Playstation.  After more than a dozen years of data breaches, identity theft, phising and pharming without real effect on the companies involved, Sony’s gamers may have decided to stop playing.

Admittedly, this is a blunt reaction to a specific event, but it speaks to the permission people have to be heard.  Legislation will never be able to keep up with the pace of technology’s development and technology can’t automate protection.  The best answer needs to come every time we click through to the next page.  It starts with knowing; the companies that help people do that will benefit from the effort.