Rep. Gerald D. Kleczka (D-WI) introduced legislation amending the Fair Credit Reporting Act to prohibit the sale or transfer of personal data, including Social Security Numbers, without a person’s written permission last Thursday.
On the same day, Senator Conrad Burns (R-MT) introduced the Online Privacy Protection Act of 1999 ordering the Federal Trade Commission to develop regulations protect personal information about children from being obtained or disseminated without parental permission.
The Personal Information Privacy Act of 1999, Kleczka explained when the amendment was introduced to the House, would prohibit businesses from selling, transferring or otherwise providing any information about their customers or their transactions for marketing purposes of any kind without the a person’s written consent. But, it would allow businesses to make that information available to third parties “for a purpose other than marketing.”
In addition the bill would limit consumer-reporting agencies to including only a person’s name, address and publicly listed telephone numbers in their reports. They would not be allowed to include Social Security Numbers or other personal identifiers.
Another section of Kleczka’s bill permitting the continued use of Social Security numbers as personal identifiers by various federal and state governmental agencies, such as motor vehicle departments, conflicts with the Freedom and Privacy Restoration Act (HR-220) introduced in January by Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX). Paul’s bill would limit the use of Social Security numbers for Social Security and Internal Revenue Services. Kleczka’s bill would permit individuals about whom information was disclosed without permission to sue for damages of up to $50,000 and permit the Social Security Administration to levy civil penalties on violators of up to $500,000 per offense.
The Online Privacy Protection Act of 1999 ordering the FTC to develop regulations “to protect the privacy of personal information collected from and about private individuals” who are not covered by the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998 within a year.
Burns, who chairs the Senate communications subcommittee, said the bill would give all consumers control over personal information collected over the Internet. It would “require commercial Web sites to notify visitors if any information is collected” and provide individuals with a way of opting-out from having information about them collected.
His bill, it was noted, complements the Consumer Internet Privacy Protection Act (HR-313) which Rep. Bruce Vento (D-MN) introduced in the House earlier in the year.
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