Senate to hear new privacy bills

JEFFERSON CITY — Missouri lawmakers are reacting to what they see as a lack of protection for Missourians in the wake of the ChoicePoint Inc. scandal, which affected more than 1,500 people in Missouri and 500,000 across the country.

“The environment for consumers in Missouri has moved from ‘buyer beware’ to ‘buyer be scared,’ ” said Sen. Pat Dougherty, D-St. Louis.

Dougherty, Sen. Maida Coleman, D-St. Louis, and several other Senate Democrats filed a block of legislation directed at protecting consumers from a range of privacy and ethical concerns the ChoicePoint scandal raised.

ChoicePoint last month announced it had unknowingly sold data to a group of criminals who breached the company’s credentialing process. For more than a year, the thieves opened accounts with ChoicePoint under the previously stolen identities of legitimate businesses.

The group received a whopping amount of data, such as the names, addresses, Social Security numbers and credit reports of half a million consumers. At least 750 people were defrauded by the stolen information.

ChoicePoint holds consumer information in a massive database, to which any business or government agency can seek access. The company sells access to people’s insurance claims, motor vehicle data, police records, vital records, credit histories, drug screening results, employment background screenings, education background and DNA profiles.

Senate Bill 506 would seek to protect Missouri consumers from the purchase and spread of personal information. The bill would also create a set of procedures to be followed if companies collect and use personal information in the same way ChoicePoint collected and used information.

Under California law, ChoicePoint was forced to inform every person in that state who was affected by the recent breach. Only when knowledge of the scandal reached the rest of the country did ChoicePoint contact the other 465,000 victims.

Dougherty’s bill would mirror California law by requiring companies such as ChoicePoint to tell their Missouri consumers of any information theft.

Coleman also introduced Senate Bill 128, which would require any products that contain a radio frequency identification tag, or RFIT, disclose that information to consumers.

RFITs can be applied to almost any physical item a consumer might buy. Tagged items carry unique embedded chips that send out identification signals, allowing companies to determine the whereabouts of their products at all times. Marketers already envision monitoring consumers’ use of products within their homes. Coleman wants companies to be required to inform consumers whether a product contains an RFIT.

“While radio frequency technology may help businesses track merchandise from production to purchase, many fear that the technology will be used to spy on consumers,” Coleman said.

The third bill in the package, Senate Bill 504, sponsored by Dougherty, creates an Office of the Inspector General to oversee all privatization efforts by the state of Missouri. There is no formal system now for citizens, legislators or public employees to be involved in privatization decisions. The private sector is unable to make suggestions or to lodge complaints about alleged competition or the use or misuse of private services because no formal process exists.

In December, the Joint Subcommittee on Competition and Privatization recommended the creation of a board to analyze and oversee privatization of state services. Dougherty’s bill would establish an office to do so.

“Nothing will hurt Missouri consumers more than having essential public services sold off to profiteers who will not deliver quality service and will charge exorbitant prices,” Dougherty said. “At a time when we are looking for more efficient government and the possible privatization of some services, we need a watchdog for the taxpayers of this state.”