February 10, 2004
The Honorable
Thomas M. Middleton, Chairman
Senate Finance
Committee
3 East Miller
Senate Building
Annapolis
,
MD
21401
Re: Support
for Senate Bill 117 - Privacy of Social
Security Numbers
Dear Mr. Chairman and Members of the Committee:
The Maryland Consumer Rights Coalition, Inc. is a non-profit education and
advocacy organization that promotes equity and fairness in the consumer
marketplace. We support the
enactment of Senate Bill 117 - Consumer Protection – Privacy of Social
Security Numbers.
Protecting individuals’ Social Security Numbers (SSNs) is of utmost
importance because of the dramatic increase in identity theft in the past few
years. Identity theft has reached epidemic proportions. Two
new surveys found that about seven million Americans were victims of identity
theft in 2002. That is an 81% increase over
2001. All indications suggest that the increases will continue. SSNs are
the key to identity theft - if a criminal obtains your SSN he or she can apply
for credit cards, buy a car, and even obtain a driver’s license in your name.
Many victims of identity theft have had their lives turned upside down after
their identity was stolen and have spent countless hours -- sometimes years--
trying to restore their good credit standing.
In order to stem the tide of identity theft, more needs to be done to limit the
availability of the SSN. The
provisions of Senate Bill 117 would provide consumers with much needed
protection from those who would attempt to steal their identity. Senate Bill
117 prohibits the public posting of SSNs, the use of SSN’s on ID cards and
the printing of SSNs on certain material that is mailed to consumers. It also
makes a violation of the Act an unfair and deceptive trade practice, which is
an important provision to ensure the enforcement of the law.
Enactment of these protections will make it harder for criminals to
obtain SSNs and use them to commit fraud and is a good first step toward
curbing the tide of identity theft
Some businesses will oppose this measure – citing the
expense to them of implementing its provisions.
However, the cost of making these simple changes pales in comparison to
the cost to consumers and to businesses of ID theft – estimated at 52 billion
in 2002.
California
passed a bill that is very similar to SB117, which went into effect on
July 1, 2002
. Some companies that operate nationwide are changing their practices for all
states in order to comply with the
California
law. There has been no major fallout from the
California
law – it is not putting companies out of business or making them pull out of
doing business in
California
. In fact, according to one
article, many companies have wanted to get away from using SSN’s for some
time and the law gave them the incentive to do it.
The SSN was never intended to be used for anything other than to allow the
Social Security Administration to track a person’s earnings. Unfortunately,
the number has become a national identification number.
It is time to take this first step to protect consumers by limiting the
use of SSNs. For these reasons, the Maryland Consumer Rights Coalition urges
you to give SB 117 a favorable report.
Very truly yours,
Cheryl
L. Hystad
Executive
Director
|