FTC TO CONGRESS:
ENACT STANDARDS TO REDUCE IDENTITY THEFT

A new Federal Trade Commission (FTC) report, Security in Numbers: SSNs and ID Theft (Report), urges Congress to draft legislation establishing streamlined data protection, encryption, data breach notification and authentication standards for all private sector entities that maintain sensitive consumer information, such as social security numbers (SSNs).

The Report, released in December 2008, calls for federal legislative measures that would improve authentication, reduce unnecessary SSN display and transmission, improve data security and require breach notification. The FTC asks Congress to 1) establish national standards that would be delineated further through agency rulemakings and 2) grant it authority to impose civil penalties for violations of the new rules.

We have prepared a brief overview of the Report, its recommendations and its implications for businesses. Please read it here.

With an international presence and understanding of a broad range of e-commerce and privacy issues, we counsel clients on the issues and risks involved in doing business in a global electronic world. We help clients to develop legally compliant e-commerce solutions throughout the world.

Please contact us if you have questions about the applicability of these new regulations to your business practices.

Thomas M. Boyd
Co-Chair, Government Affairs Practice

Jim Halpert

David A. Lieber

Heidi Salow

Micah Thorner

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