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New Legislation to Combat Identity Theft
coondoggie writes to tell us the Washington Post is reporting that new legislation in a numbers of states and the District of Columbia allows consumers to place a "security freeze" on their credit files. "For the millions of consumers who receive notice each year that their personal or financial data was lost or stolen, a preemptive security freeze can offer peace of mind. It blocks businesses and potential fraudsters from gaining access to a consumer's credit report and score and from granting new lines of credit in the consumer's name. In many states, consumers who want to remove the freeze can use a special identification number to unlock access to their credit file."
If you aren't buying a house, car, or a new credit card, you should preemptively freeze your credit and leave it that way.
If I have been able to see further than others, it is because I bought a pair of binoculars.
Just give us one time keys.
If I can use a piece of important information only once before it changes then nobody can replay it.
Incidentally, how do you prove you are you to actually put the freeze/unfreeze in place?
liqbase
There's a private company (Lifelock is the one I hear on the radio all the time) that also has the ability to lock down your credit. No new legislation required, it would seem. Of course, that costs money so maybe this legislation just enables individuals to lock their credit at the taxpayer's expense.
This is also supposed to stop those pre-approvals that constantly clog up your mailbox... (well, mine at least.)
More Twoson than Cupertino
The Post also ran a much longer, more in-depth piece looking at the process of passing freeze legislation in Delaware, easily the most banking- and business-friendly state in the union. That piece is here
One highlight, which looks at the role of the Consumer Data Industry Association (CDIA), the lobbyist group that works for the data broker industry and the credit bureaus:
"Goldberg, who has worked with advocates in more than a dozen states to enact freeze legislation, said that in 2005 the CDIA and the credit-reporting agencies shifted their strategy. They no longer were outright opposed to credit-freeze laws; instead, they worked to convince states to allow the bureaus to charge as much as possible when consumers place, lift or remove credit freezes. "The credit reporting agencies clearly want consumers to pay more for the security freeze than we certainly think they should," Goldberg said. "But given that those same agencies collect all of this sensitive financial data about consumers and then turn around and sell it, we think they should also have the obligation to protect the consumer, and that's where the security freeze comes in.
...because you never know who you're dealing with.
At least it gives an option to those of us who have to carry around the other pieces information. It gives us something that can stay secret. Not like the Social Security Number, Date Of Birth, address, and all the other easily obtainable information. At least this is something that people who are interested in the security of their credit information can keep secret.
Anthropic principle: We see the universe the way it is because if it were different we would not be here to see it.