Victim of ID Theft? You may not be told!, page 1

There is a movement in Washington that will give companies the ability to not notify customers if they experience a security breach that jeopardizes the customer's information. All of the current bills in both the House and Senate will set up "triggers" that will have to be met before a company has to notify customers. The company can suffer a breach in security but if they cannot find evidence that the breach will harm their customers then the company would not have to notify them. Most of these bills are worded so that they will trump any states laws that differ. There are now 19 states that require companies that deal with personal data to inform their customers of any security breaches of this information.

www.foxnews.com
In the last few years, 19 states have enacted laws requiring credit card companies, financial institutions and other parties dealing with personal data to notify individuals when their information is breached. But advocates of full disclosure say a movement is afoot in Washington to weaken these laws by giving companies more flexibility over whether or not they have to notify customers.

"We have millions of Americans who become victims of identity theft each year, and we need to do as much as possible to lower that number," said Susanna Montezemolo, policy analyst for the Consumers Union, which is lobbying Congress for tough security and privacy standards.

"States have been innovators in regard to identity security; we want to know that the state will still be able to come out with effective solutions," Montezemolo told FOXNews.com.

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I am sorry but this "movement" is so bad that it is not even funny! To leave it up to companies to determine that a customer will suffer harm from having their information stolen through a security breach is tantamount to allowing the tobacco companies proving that cigarette smoking is healthy.
In today's day and age, any decent code junky can easily perform a data mine operation that will only gather portions of information from various parts of a database, put them together and come up with a goldmine. If the parts of the information that is stolen were to be evaluated on an individual basis, a company can easily demonstrate that their customers security and safety has not been affected by the breach.

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[edit on 10-9-2005 by DJDOHBOY]