Recently, the House Commerce and Energy Committee's Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade, and Consumer Protection held a four-hour session addressing identity theft and the recent infomation thefts that have befallen Choicepoint and LexisNexis. Rep. Joe Barton, the Texas Republican who chairs the House Commerce and Energy Committee said of their plans,

"There's a very good chance we're going to put together a bill that will make it illegal to sell the Social Security number without the permission of the individual unless there is a legitimate law-enforcement purpose.....There may be one or two other exceptions; I don't know what they would be. I have not heard anything that explains to me why we should allow that to go on."

It was also suggested by House members during the session that Congress should consider extending the rules in the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, which requires financial institutions to have a security plan to protect the confidentiality and integrity of personal consumer information to data aaggregators such as Choicepoint.

To read the rest which including the reactions of key players such as the CEOs of Choicepoint and LexisNexis, check out the full article at InfoWeek.

And for more on the House Subcommittee session, check here and here.

-- MDT

Labels: identity theft