Proposed Massachusetts Identity Theft Laws Would Begin to Address Growing Concerns in the State!
Preventing identity theft has become a growing concern in Massachusetts, prompting the Consumer Protection Committee in the state House to recently hear testimony on the need for more identity theft protection besides the current bills below.
Senate Bill 161 and House Bill 328 would respectively address security breach notification requirements and credit report security freeze laws in Massachusetts. According to the Massachusetts Public Interest Group, 35 states have passed breach notification requirements and 26 states have passed security freeze laws since 2000. The MASSPIRG added that every New England state with the exception of Massachusetts has passed such requirements and laws.
A recent Associated Press story on Boston.com detailed some of these concerns about Massachusetts identity theft law. As just one example, the story detailed how Secretary of State William Galvin has links on his Web site to businesses containing Social Security numbers, bank account numbers, home addresses and phone numbers of Massachusetts’ residents. Galvin estimated that 5,500 of the 85,000 commercial borrowing filings recorded annually contained Social Security numbers.
While Galvin said that he is launching software to remove Social Security numbers from these filings, the story said that he has refused to disable the links since it’s necessary for commerce. Galvin did say anyone who contacts the Secretary of State can get their Social Security number removed immediately from those online documents.
What Would These Proposed Identity Theft Laws Do in Massachusetts?
Senate Bill 361 addresses security breach notification in the state. Specifically, this proposed Massachusetts identity theft law would require any entity experiencing a security breach to contact, notify and warn consumers in a timely manner. With this notification, consumers could close accounts if they wish and would at least allow them to closely monitor their bills, account statements and credit reports.
House Bill 328 addresses security freezes by giving consumers the ability to block access to their credit report and thus prevent thieves from opening new credit accounts and accumulate debt in their names. Essentially, this proposed identity theft law would allow Massachusetts’ consumers to become gatekeepers of their own credit information by giving them the opportunity to create passwords with the three credit reporting agencies to prevent their report from being used for credit
MASSPIRG Consumer Advocate Eric Bourassa said in the House Committee hearing that Massachusetts should not go the way of other states and allow credit reporting agencies to charge consumers for the security freeze. He added that consumers should not bare the brunt of such costs when simply trying to prevent identity theft and that lenders like banks, mortgage dealers, retail stores and auto financers should pay for them.
The Identity Theft Problem: Some Figures and Recent Actions
The Federal Trade Commission says that identity theft affects more than 10 million Americans each year. Robert Ellis Smith publishes the online newsletter Privacy Journal and said in the AP story that state identity theft laws tend to be rather narrow in scope and just disallow Social Security numbers on driver’s licenses.
With such information in mind, some states have passed laws or proposed legislation that would better combat identity theft. A Vermont identity theft law took effect last year requiring government agencies to remove Social Security numbers from public records since these numbers are often gold for identity thieves to fraudulently obtain credit.
Smith called this Vermont identity theft law the most comprehensive one around, and the story detailed how U.S. Senator Patrick Leahy of Vermont is trying to push similar legislation in Congress for federal, state and local agencies.
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