Outrageous as it seems, it is perfectly legal in the UnitedStates for private companies to sell your Social Security number toan interested party. They can sell your name and address, too. Andthey can do it even if you don’t want them to.
Yet not only is little being done to strengthen Americans’control over their personal information, the Senate is on the vergeof passing legislation, already approved by the House, that wouldkeep regulation weak and bar state governments from enactingstronger protections.
The issue is reauthorizing the Fair Credit Reporting Act. Aswritten, it would let companies continue sharing a person’sdata with hundreds of “affiliates.” Few of thesecompanies use the encryption technology that might keep this datasecure. The explosion of identity theft cases in recent years isalmost certainly linked to this bonanza of data sharing, made legalby the federal Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act of 1999.
Along with financial institutions, the credit-bureau industryhas enormous power over how personal data is distributed and”protected.” Yet serious regulation that would make itmore responsible in how it trades in and profits fromAmericans’ information is not even being contemplated.
Jamie Court, a spokesman for the Foundation for Taxpayer andConsumer Rights, says that the average American can safely assumethat tens of thousands of companies now hold copies of his or herpersonal data. A federal “opt-out” rule that letsAmericans request that their information not be shared does not, inactuality, prevent sharing by affiliates.
This summer, California passed a law that limits data-sharing byaffiliates. But if Congress passes the reauthorized act, it willpreempt tougher state laws such as California’s.
Although considered guardians of states’ rights, manyRepublicans have neglected to pass an amendment to the act. Lastmonth, Equifax, one of the three major credit-reporting agencies,threw a fund-raiser for Republican Sen. Robert Bennett of Utah, whohelped advance changes to the act that would tamp down peskyrequests for copies of consumers’ reports. (Getting a copy ofone’s credit report is a vital step in tackling identitytheft.)
If you are counting on some of your Republican representativesin Congress to protect states’ rights you might want torethink your strategy. Many politicians, regardless of partyaffiliation, deceive their constituents if it benefits theircareers and party.
Limiting the sharing of information is just a start. YetCongress seems disinclined to take even this simplest of steps inthe public interest. It is imperative that states be allowed towrite their own laws respecting financial privacy. Such anamendment has been proposed by Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D.-Calif.)that would preserve that state right and should be passed.
