Abstract

Identity Thieves

This article focuses on identity theft. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has acknowledged that the epidemic of identity theft claimed almost 10 million victims last year. But on the same day it released the data, September 3, 2003, the agency attacked a new California privacy law that would cure the problem by limiting the corporate trade in our private information. The explosion of identity theft corresponds to the Congressional felling, in the late 1990s, of Depression-era walls between banks, insurers and brokerages. This allowed companies to affiliate across industry lines and share private customer information with their affiliates to increase their commercial opportunities. The California privacy measure signed by Governor Gray Davis August 27 allows consumers to say no to the trading of their private information among affiliates in different businesses.The administration of U.S. President George W. Bush and GOP Congress, however, are backing federal legislation that would pre-empt Californians' new privacy rights. Their specious argument, echoing the banks and insurers, is that privacy laws must be uniform, and the stronger California law will hamper efforts to stop identity theft because it requires rules different from the rest of the nation. George W. Bush will have to choose between the commercial freedoms of corporations and the privacy fights of Americans.