Is your state putting your identity at risk?

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February 19th, 2008 - Posted by Joe

Major data breaches continue to occur at an alarming rate and identity theft is on the rise but eleven US states still have no formal data breach disclosure laws on the books. This lack of legislation could be putting residents at a higher risk of falling victim to identity thieves.
California was the first state to enact laws that spelled out how companies must disclose data breaches to impacted consumers. The ground breaking law, known as the California Information Practice Act or Senate Bill 1386, requires any company that stores the personal information of California residents to notify those consumers if their data has been or may have been exposed. Personal information includes things like your name, credit card numbers, social security number, account numbers or PINs.
Thirty-seven other states have followed California's lead and passed data breach related policies that require similar disclosure to protect the residents of their states. However, New Mexico, South Dakota, Iowa, Missouri, Kentucky, West Virginia, Virginia, South Carolina, Alabama, Mississippi and Alaska still have no disclosure requirements in place to protect consumers.

A twelfth state, Oklahoma, only requires disclosure by government agencies and not private companies in a the case of exposure of personal information. Therefore, the protections to Oklahomans are significantly limited.

It is unclear why these states aren't moving more aggressively to protect their residents. However, it is clear that the most important things for consumers that are impacted in a data breach to to have quick and complete disclosure so that they can take steps to safeguard their identity from thieves.

We strongly believe that the best way to protect yourself from identity theft is by using a proactive identity theft protection service such as LifeLock or Identity Guard. You can read more about identity theft prevention and protection in our identity theft protection service comparison and reviews at NextAdvisor.com.