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Privacy
I believe that we must protect all citizens' right to privacy and attempt to control inappropriate disclosure of personal, medical and financial information. To this end, I became a founding member of the Congressional Privacy Caucus, a bipartisan, bicameral group of Members of Congress dedicated to protecting individual privacy.
I voted against major, financial, modernization legislation, known as the "Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act," because it did not include sufficient financial privacy provisions. During the 107th Congress, I introduced the "Freedom from Behavioral Profiling Act of 2001." This legislation would have amended the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act by requiring that financial institutions provide consumers with the ability to proactively consent or "opt-in" to allow for the sharing of information for personally identifiable behavioral profiling. Thus, institutions would have been required to seek a customer's approval before they shared information about where an individual spends and receives their money. This legislation was intended to stop the compilation of an individual's most personal and detailed buying habits - without that individual's prior knowledge and affirmative consent.
In the 108th Congress, as Chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, I held a number of hearings to study privacy issues and subsequently introduced S. 1753, a bill to amend the Fair Credit Reporting Act in order to prevent identity theft. The primary goals of this bill were to improve the use of and consumer access to consumer reports, enhance the accuracy of consumer reports, limit the sharing of certain consumer information, and improve financial education and literacy. While this bill was never considered before the full Senate, a similar bill introduced by Representative Spencer Bachus, the "Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act of 2003," included many of these provisions and was signed into law by the President. Additionally, the "Identity Theft Penalty Enhancement Act," sponsored by Representative John Carter was signed into law during the 108th Congress. This legislation amends the United States Code to establish penalties for aggravated identity theft.
Several notable pieces of legislation have been introduced in the 109th Congress addressing lingering privacy concerns. On January 24, 2005, Senator Feinstein introduced S. 29, a bill which intends to limit the misuse of Social Security numbers and establish criminal penalties for such misuse. This bill is currently awaiting action before the Senate Committee on the Judiciary.
On March 10, 2005, the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Development held a hearing to discuss current identity theft issues, including the most recent breaches of the ChoicePoint and Lexis Nexis databases, and possible remedies for greater protection. While these two incidents have received significant media attention and brought privacy concerns to the forefront, these events are only illustrative of larger developments. I feel that this overall subject requires broad, not simply anecdotal, consideration.
Building on last year's efforts, in 2006 the Banking Committee intends to move legislation that will establish standards for notifying consumers of unauthorized disclosure of their financial information in certain circumstances. The bill will be designed to complement existing data security protections established in Gramm Leach Bliley and the Fair Credit Reporting Act. To protect their financial privacy, it is essential that consumers be quickly notified when that information has been compromised so that they may take appropriate action.
Technology has profoundly changed our economy. Automation, depersonalized transactions and the electronic storage, manipulation and transfer of massive amounts of sensitive information are entirely routine. While there are significant benefits associated with these developments, we must also recognize that there are significant risks as well.
Most notably, our rapid fire, credit-in-a-moment economy, provides tremendous opportunities for fraud and identity theft. If a crook obtains someone's personal information such as their name, date of birth, and Social Security number, they can steal millions of dollars and wreak havoc on that person's life and credit history in only a matter of moments. For this reason, it is paramount that this kind of sensitive information is properly protected.
My commitment to individual privacy remains strong and you may be certain that I will continue to work with my colleagues in the Senate to protect the privacy of all Americans.
More information on Senator Shelby's activities regarding privacy:
Chemical Weapons Disposal at Anniston
Department of Homeland Security
Disability and Military Retirement Benefits