Hurricane Katrina was the costliest and one of the deadliest hurricanes in the history of the United States. No one is really sure whether the loss of life and property will ever be able to be summed up. One website (with unique security capabilities) is however proud that it has been able to help many of the survivors in getting restitution for property that was devastated during this mammoth storm.



Prior to Katrina, the designers of www.myprivateroom.com had incorporated a new feature into their Internet software that allowed homeowners to document valuable items in the home through the use of their "Certificates Of Ownership". These certificates and the general operation of the website encourage you to take pictures of important personal property that occupies your home and to upload those images (along with descriptive text and estimated values) to a central server that encrypts and stores the information for later retrieval.

The combined data and uploaded material are "locked" into the system and can not be edited after 24 hours has passed from original data input. This feature as well as other security procedures go a long way in protecting the integrity and authenticity of the certificate. In the event of an emergency such as a hurricane, flood, fire, tornado etc., the certificates can be viewed by appropriate authorities such as insurance personnel to verify the "prior" ownership of said items. Insurance companies in particular tend to take a very dim view of reported loss of very expensive items when the owner has no way of proving that they owned the items in the first place.

At first glance, one might say, well what about receipts. The problem with that approach is that during the course of a major disaster, you not only may have lost your receipts but you may have lost your entire house. Having a virtual offsite warehouse that can store and document your ownership can prove to be priceless, as you may see in the following story.

Mrs Robinson (real name withheld to protect privacy) of New Orleans enjoyed using computers because she spent a lot of time on the Internet. She was not from the area originally but she and her husband lived their nearly 12 years. One of her favorite activities was to upload pictures so that her out of state relatives could see some of the things that were important in her life. She had often used the website www.myprivateroom.com to store her personal images and when the site offered the ability to use its "Certificates of Ownership", Mrs Robinson acted quickly because it seemed like a wise thing to do. She never had thoughts about a major disaster such as Katrina but she was aware of robberies and other negative events in her neighborhood.

When the storm hit, Mrs Robinson lost everything. Her recovery was plagued by one disappointment after another. She did however write to support@myprivateroom.com to tell them how valuable her membership was for recovering not only personal pictures and information but also for dealing with insurance companies and other agencies. She had previously documented so much of her possessions especially with the use of the "Certificates of Ownership" it proved to be the only physical proof of her previous belongings. Her insurance agent was aware of this type of proof and it helped her to recover financially while many of her friends and neighbors were still battling with the insurance companies who were trying to defend themselves against fraudulent claims.

The website (http://www.myprivateroom.com) is a subscription/membership site and includes a host of other privacy and protection functions, all for a modest $5 a month (less when paid yearly). A thirty (30) day, no obligation free trial is available to new members.