Senator Dianne Feinstein continues her great work on protecting consumers from identity theft, and recently introduced some new legislation that could be of great benefit to consumers – as long as it gets passed.

Her “Notification of Risk to Personal Data Act” has got some good provisions, including:

- Requiring businesses and federal agencies to notify individuals of a security breach involving personal data without unreasonable delay.

- Requiring media notice as well as individual notice, and the notice must include a description of the type of personal data breached and a toll-free number to call for more information.

- If more than 1,000 individuals have to be notified as a result of the breach, the company or agency must coordinate with credit reporting agencies (“coordinate” sounds a little vague but it may become clearer).

- Authorizing the U.S. Attorney General and state Attorneys General to bring civil actions;

The Social Security Number Misuse Prevention Act (S.238) also has some good prevention features:

- Prohibits the sale or display of an individual’s Social Security number to the general public without the individual’s consent.

- Prohibits federal, state and local government agencies from displaying Social Security numbers on public records posted on the Internet or issued to the general public through CD-ROMs or other electronic media, or from printing them on government checks;

- Provides some limitations on when a business can ask a customer for his or her Social Security number.

- Includes both criminal and civil penalties.

This is all great stuff and despite the critics, I think that more legislation is badly needed in an environment where our identities are bought and sold, often without sufficient care and security, and usually without our knowledge or permission.

So keeping pushing for more legislation like this and urge your Representative to do more.