While the Super Bowl distracted many people yesterday, hacktivist group Anonymous released a file reportedly containing personal information on over 4,000 U.S. bank executives.

Anonymous posted the file to the Alabama Criminal Justice Information Center’s .gov website. It lists phone numbers, log in credentials (through the passwords are hashed), and IP addresses for 4,000 banking officials who are identified next to each piece of information, according to ZDNet. The data dump is part of a new operation called “OpLastResort” that calls for computer crime prosecution reform.

It was also posted to Pastebin, an Anonymous-favorite content sharing website.

Earlier this month, Anonymous also hacked into the Department of Justice and defaced the website of the United States Sentencing Commission in the name of Aaron Swartz. Credited with cofounding Reddit, Swartz recently committed suicide while facing heavy sentences for stealing a large amount of files from JSTOR using MIT’s network. Anonymous threatened that unless we have some sort of reform on how these types of crimes are prosecuted, the group will release a “warhead” of information stolen out of that hack. What is in the warhead is unknown; Anonymous said it didn’t want to ruin the speculation by hinting at what it is.

Whether Sunday’s dump and this threat are connected is unknown.

The hack was further announced on the OpLastResort Twitter page, which will likely become a bull horn for Anonymous’ computer crime reform actions.

Piggy bank image via Shutterstock

Last year Apple was the 14th most trusted company in America, and Google was the 19th, according to the Ponemon Institute’s privacy report, released today. Facebook most recently made an appearance on the list in 2009, as did AOL, while Yahoo dropped off in 2010.

“There’s been a lot of media coverage about companies like Google, Facebook [and] Apple and privacy,” Ponenmon’s executive director, Susan Jayson told me this morning. “Consumers are concerned about their privacy, and this kind of media exposure, plus their personal experiences, all contribute to people getting concerned.”

That’s something the study, which reached over 7,000 Americans, made clear. Almost half, 49 percent, of respondents remembered receiving at least one data breach notification in the past year, telling them that some company had some kind of intrusion or leak that had exposed their personal data.

Identity Thief, the movie

People’s biggest concern is identity theft: 61 percent of respondents highlighted it as the most significant privacy-related threat. It’s become such a common fear that it’s the topic of an upcoming movie: Identity Thief.

“Protection against identity theft keeps coming up in our research,” Jayson said. “People are very concerned about becoming the target of a thief … which includes medical identity theft and credit card identity theft.”

And what should be the safest places sometimes are not. Jayson’s own mother-in-law had her credit cards and other personal information stolen when checking into a Toussaint, Arizona hospital, and identity thieves indulged in a multi-thousand-dollar shopping marathon at her expense while she was sick.

Perception is the biggest problem for today’s top technology companies, Jayon says. While giants like Google provide immense value, a huge amount of personal data is tied up in your Google identity, especially when linked to your Android-based mobile phone or tablet. Similarly, Apple’s iCloud is wonderful for backing up an old phone and restoring all your contacts, data, apps, and more on a new phone, but it comes at the cost of sharing a great deal of information that gets stored at a corporate data center. And while both Google and Apple have been very good about protecting people’s information, the worry seems to remain.

Facebook, of course, might be the company that knows the most about us, and it’s continually in the public eye for confusing privacy policies, real or imagined gaffes, and a perception that the company is always trying to make more data public.

“Companies are in a bind,” Jayson says. “They don’t want to tell criminals exactly what they’re doing, but they do want to let consumers know that they’re putting in safeguards. And people do love convenience — so they use crummy passwords but still expect companies to protect them.”

Interestingly, one of the biggest privacy challenges that people identified is their own government. ”People are getting concerned about government intrusion into their lives … government surveillance via drones, and agencies like the TSA and DHS,” Jayson told me.

Here are the top 20 companies in America for privacy, as rated by consumers:

photo credit: Jesus Belzunce via photopin cc

That’s all well and good, but data mining is a fairly standard means to generate revenue for Silicon Valley’s tech companies. And Evernote, an astronomically well-funded company with $166 million under its belt, has board members and investors to answer to that expect to see solid return on investment.

Aside from the fact that data mining and targeted advertising is one of the major ways that tech companies make money, this is a particularly surprising guarantee given that the company anticipates massive growth, and is ramping up plans to move into the enterprise.

Read more about today’s launch of new tool: “Evernote Business.”

I caught up with CEO Phil Libin at the annual Trunk Conference to find out more about the company’s guarantee to keep its fingers out of the honey pot. He told me the first criteria is to create a system where users would never have to surrender any private information.

When asked about whether he faces pressure from investors, Libin claimed that they’ve been deliberately selective. ”We refuse to do anything in the short term that would give us money but destroy value,” he told me. “Good investors understand that.”

In the interview, Libin hinted at the company’s potential to IPO in the coming years. At this point, he claimed that a buyout is highly unlikely, considering that they have turned down a number of offers.

But Libin would not rule out a potential acquisition.

If M&A is in the company’s future, it would leave user’s data in a vulnerable spot. Evernote is sitting on a goldmine of unstructured data: our day-to-day musings, and most private thoughts.

Libin reassured me that Evernote has already grown so large that it’s unlikely a potential acquirer would fork over much more than an investor (“Why would Google think that we are worth 10 times more than Sequoia does?”).

This isn’t the first time the company has made the promise not to interfere with user data. Evernote makes the guarantee in its terms of service and in company blog posts. “If someone buys us, or if there is some evil CEO without a goatee, we would have to notify users and they can decide if they want to stay or leave,” said Libin.

Ultimately, Evernote is asking you to trust them. “Trust isn’t something you can write in a contract,” Libin explained.

In the past few weeks, there has been much debate about Google’s Real Name Policy, with some calling it revolutionary and others labeling it an abuse of power.

The suspension measure is aimed at cutting down on spam, according to the company. But, ensuring that the majority of those accounts are real, living, breathing human beings also makes it a far more effective advertising platform. It also raises questions about the added privacy concerns associated with storing personal information on a platform designed to share with various social circles.

In response to the feedback, Google has announced that accounts currently using a pseudonym or nickname won’t be immediately suspended.

“We’re listening, learning and iterating to give our users the best experience possible. Starting today, if we find that your profile name does not adhere to our policy, we’ll give you a 4 day grace period to fix your profile name before we take further action,” said Google+ project manager Saurabh Sharma in a note posted on Google+ yesterday. “During this period, you can continue to use Google+ as usual. We’re hoping that most affected users will be able to quickly fix their profile name while continuing to enjoy all that Google+ has to offer.”

We’ve also embedded Sharma’s video response below.

Do you use a pseudonym or nickname across the web? Tell us your thoughts on switching to your real name in the comments.