WASHINGTON, D.C. – ChoicePoint, a national data brokerage company, notified 9,000 consumers’ today that they will join the ranks of 50 million Americans who have had their personal information misused or stolen this year. The notification Choicepoint sent to consumers impacted by the breach was made possible by a new policy that Choicepoint has adopted in the wake of several data base breaches at large companies. Congress is currently considering adopting weak data privacy legislation with a much narrower notification requirement that only would be triggered if it’s likely the information would be used to steal a consumer’s identity. Representative Edward J. Markey (D-MA) a senior Democratic member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee and Co Chair of the Congressional Privacy Caucus made the following statement in response to the news of the latest privacy breaches.

“Today’s announcement by ChoicePoint that consumers’ personal information contained in its databases had been misused is yet another reminder of the urgent need for strong federal data privacy legislation. Unfortunately, it appears that Congress is preparing a legislative fix that fails to effectively protect Americans when their Social Security numbers, financial account information and other personally-identifiable information is poached from databases. Legislation under consideration in Congress would only notify consumers of theft of their personal information if it is likely the information would be used to steal their identity, ignoring the other
devastating effects of information leaks, stalking, intimidation and other forms of extortion,” said Rep. Markey.

“Social Security numbers, bank account numbers, addresses, credit card data – this information is the key that unlocks the personal lives of Americans in the information age. We need a Fort Knox mentality to protection of Americans’ private information, not a minimalist approach that leaves consumers’ data vulnerable to manipulation by data thieves,” Markey continued.

Personal information can be manipulated for many unscrupulous purposes, such as extortion, stalking and intimidation, but the legislation pending in Congress ignores these concerns. Earlier this week Rep. Markey, released a report detailing the lack of protection for Americans when their private data leaves U.S. shores and is outsourced to other countries.

More information about Rep. Markey’s fight for consumer privacy rights can be found at www.house.gov/markey.