BOSTON—The Massachusetts Senate joined the House in passing an identity
theft protection bill today that gives consumers the ability to
“freeze” their credit reports to stop would-be thieves from opening
credit in their name, and requires businesses and government agencies
to notify consumers if enough of their personal information that could
be used to commit identity theft is lost or stolen.
“This is a great victory for Massachusetts consumers,” said MASSPIRG
Consumer Advocate Eric Bourassa. “This law will go a long way in
decreasing the problem of identity theft.”
Since 2000, dozens of states across the country have passed Security Breach Notification requirement and Credit Report Security Freeze laws,
both of which are at the heart of the legislation. Senate members
working on the bill include Senator Michael Morrissey, Chair of the
Consumer Protection Committee, Senator Jarrett Barrios, Senate Mark
Montigny, and Senator Pat Jehlen.
Key parts of the bill include:
- Breach Notification
—requires commercial entities and government agencies to notify
affected consumers if enough of their personal information to commit
identity theft has been acquired by an unauthorized person or for an
unauthorized purpose.
- Credit Report Security Freeze —enables consumers to “lock” their credit report, preventing would be ID thieves from taking out credit in their name.
- Police Reports
—allows victims of ID theft to get a copy of their police report from
any law enforcement office, even if crime did not occur in that
jurisdiction (in a different city or state). Victims need a copy of
their police report to clean up the financial mess resulting from
identity theft and to qualify for a free security freeze.
Good parts of the bill include no fee for placing the security freeze,
one free lift of the security freeze from each credit reporting agency
annually, and capping subsequent lift fees at $5.
