Overview

Just since February 2005, Choicepoint, Bank of America, DSW Shoe Warehouse, Cardsystems, Department of Veterans Affairs, and other companies and agencies have disclosed that they’ve lost the confidential financial information of over 90 million Americans. We learned about these security breaches only due to a pioneering California notice breach law that companies complied with nationwide, while other states began to pass their own laws.

Easy availability of confidential financial information, coupled with sloppy credit-granting practices by creditors and credit bureaus, makes it easy for identity thieves to open accounts in our name.

Security freezes give consumers real control over access to their credit report. A freeze prevents access to your credit report to new creditors. This closes the loophole that identity thieves have exploited, since most businesses will not issue new credit or loans to people without first reviewing their credit reports. California enacted the first freeze law in 2001, and 24 states have followed with their own laws.

Now, the banks and credit card companies are pressuring Congress to override the strongest security freeze and breach notice laws, as well as dozens of other state identity theft reforms, with a weak federal law that won’t stop identity theft and won’t allow the states to innovate.

Under the flawed HR 3997, only previous identity theft victims would be able to use security freezes. That’s like saying only victims of car crashes could wear seat belts. And, the bill would allow companies that lost confidential information to decide whether it was important to tell us.