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Tighter protections needed for your ID.(Viewpoint: THE CONSUMERS UNION PERSPECTIVE)
If you're a careful consumer, you shred your sensitive mail, safeguard your Social Security number, and keep personal information at home. But even if you take those steps, you can still become one of the nearly 10 million victims of identity theft in the U.S. each year.
Our story on data brokers on page 41 highlights how your information is collected and sold by companies you may have never heard about. Information including your Social Security number and date of birth are in the hands of your bank, insurance company, and doctor's office, as well as government agencies and countless other businesses that use these data.
Since early 2005, an estimated 90 million records containing identifying information have been breached, prompting action on the state and federal levels. States have led the way by enacting strong new consumer-protection laws regarding data privacy and security. Consumers Union is urging Congress to expand and strengthen those existing state rights for all Americans.
For example, Congress should require companies, government agencies, and organizations to develop and enforce strict data-security practices, including telling consumers every time there's a breach of sensitive information. Notification is crucial, since it provides an incentive for companies to keep information secure. It also allows people who may be at a higher risk of ID theft to take steps immediately to avoid becoming victims.
Congress should require data brokers to let people see and correct the information they hold. Now, you can see that information only if it's used for certain purposes, such as credit or employment.
We also need strong laws to prevent identity theft from happening in the first place. A good starting ...
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...printing Social Security numbers on...Medicare cards, Consumers Union, the non...informed Consumers Union that the...removing Social Security numbers from...information on Consumers Union's effort to remove Social Security numbers from...
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...to the non-partisan Consumers Union. The new law is a taxpayer...executive director of Consumers Union 202-462-6262 -- SOCIAL SECURITY The president has established...of making promises on Social Security and then backing away...