| Comment Number: | 531096-00075 |
| Received: | 8/6/2007 8:16:07 AM |
| Organization: | |
| Commenter: | Ronald D. Edge |
| State: | IN |
| Agency: | Federal Trade Commission |
| Rule: | Private Sector Use of SSNs |
| No Attachments |
Comments:
American citizens thought this was settled in the 1970's, but clearly it was not. The use of social security number as an identifier by private industry (including medical), coupled with explosive Internet growth, has led to an explosion in criminal abuse and identity theft. Privacy is almost dead. We are rapidly reaching the point at which it will be IMPOSSIBLE for individuals to defend their privacy or their identity from abuse, and that includes abuse that corporations will commit for their own profit motives, or abuse that criminals will commit in abusing identities. The Federal Government should be moving our society toward protection of individual privacy and security, not away from it. In Indiana we now operate under a law that holds technology and administrative staff personally liable if they do not do due diligence and expose social security numbers to criminals e.g. via computer breakins. Is the Federal Government now going to intervene again and destroy the state laws that have sprung up to protect individuals? It would not, of course, be a surprise, as that is what has been the trend for the past decade.