April 23, 2007
Consumer Union Says President’s ID Theft Task Force’s Plan
Should Do More to Safeguard Personal Information
(Washington, DC) —Today Consumers Union acknowledged the positive contributions of the President’s task force on identity theft, but said that more needs to be done to protect consumers’ private data.
Consumers Union has long supported efforts to reduce the use of social security numbers by federal agencies, establish a strong standard requiring private sector entities to safeguard consumers’ personal data, and require consumers to be notified when a security breach occurs involving their personal information. However, Consumers Union does not think the notice outlined in the President’s Identity Theft Task Force’s recommendations is strong enough.
“Unfortunately, the task force's recommendation on when consumers should be notified about data security breaches is flawed,” said Gail Hillebrand, Senior Attorney with Consumers Union. "We are deeply concerned that tying notice of a security breach to an affirmative determination of risk means that consumers won’t be told when there is not enough information to determine the risk.”
Consumers Union supports notice of breach requirements without triggers, loopholes or exceptions. Many states like California, New York, Illinois, and Texas require notice of breach without any risk standard. “We believe the federal government should follow the strong precedent of many states in order to ensure the strongest protection of consumers against identity theft when a breach has occurred,” according to Hillebrand.
Consumers Union also supports giving consumers the ability to “freeze” access to their credit files to prevent crooks from opening fraudulent accounts using stolen information. While 31 states have adopted security freeze protections, there is currently no federal law in place. Consumers Union has called on the federal agencies to inform consumers about existing state security freeze rights.
For more information on state laws, see: http://www.consumersunion.org/campaigns/learn_more/003484indiv.html
There are nearly 10 million identity theft victims each year, according the Federal Trade Commission, which Consumers Union estimates amounts to 19 identity theft victims a minute. In the past two years, security breaches have been announced involving over 150 million records, costing businesses, financial institutions and consumers billions of dollars.
Gail Hillebrand or Michael McCauley: 415-431-6747 | 
