U.S. PIRG Consumer Blog: Is Congress Going Soft On Identity Theft Crime?
Ed Mierzwinski’s US PIRG blog says
The New York Times had a story by Damon Darlin Saturday on the issues around the need for strong security freeze laws and the threat to strong state privacy protections posed by Congressional meddling.
The piece goes on to describe how credit bureaus are making billions selling us credit-monitoring products -- a protection racket if I ever saw one, since their sloppy practices are the reason consumers need to purchase the product -- at $100 or more each year. While the piece quotes the credit bureaus whining about a patchwork quilt of different state laws, the bureaus simply don't want that credit monitoring profit spigot turned off. Neither credit monitoring nor fraud alerts (available only to victims and active-duty military personnel) are guaranteed to stop identity theft-- only a strong consumer-friendly security freeze can do that. Here's a link to a blog entry that includes a joint news release from PIRG and Consumers Union following passage of "the worst data security bill ever" by the US House Financial Services Committee Thursday.
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