This is a collection of general legislative ideas to fight against identity theft. Please email your ideas. Let your legislators know how you feel on these issues.

Audit Trail for Public Information Access
There's too much personally identifying information in the public domain. The ideal goal would be to eliminate public access. When that's not possible there should be an audit trail identifying the person who requested and/or received personally identifying information.

Set uniform national standards that companies need to follow to protect personal data.

• Provides guidance for small businesses that may not have staff to create on their own.
• Universities could include standards in courses. This would apply to several disciplines to include business and computer science courses. Data protection/security is noticeably missing from our curriculum.
• Businesses could gain increased trust from clients when a minimum set of data protection standards are in place. This trust will become increasingly important criteria for customers selecting a business to work with.
• Would help American businesses meet criteria of European Data Protection Directive when doing business with EU nations.
• Will help businesses avoid client data compromise that would result in embarrassing exposure and possible death of their business.

Fines for companies that do not adhere to national data security standards.

Require companies to go through a credentialing process if they want to handle sensitive consumer information.

Establish a federal entity to protect personal privacy, with the authority to issue and enforce regulations.

Give consumers the right to see what data companies have on them and to correct any mistakes they find.

Require companies to get consumer permission to share or publish their personal information.

Require employers to verify employees do not share social security numbers.

Require employers to verify validity of social security numbers using the SSN verification system.

Tax Return Submission -- e-file only with PIN
Some ID theft victims have to race their thief each year to see who will submit the tax return first. I would like ID theft victims to have the option of "e-file only with PIN" to submit their tax returns. IRS should flag for investigation any other tax return submissions under the victim's social security number. Paper returns should be processed for fingerprints.

Identity Theft Seminar
Almost 10 million Americans become victims of identity theft each year. I became a victim in 2001. I've researched identity theft almost daily since then to protect myself and help others. I want to help you avoid this nightmare.

Your odds of becoming a victim are greatly reduced with knowledge, awareness, and detection. Take action now to avoid becoming the next victim.

Email me if your group is interested in sponsoring an ID theft presentation.

Seminar Flyer (pdf file)