Welcome to Wisconsin's Officeof
Privacy Protection

Identity theft is one of the fastest growing crimes in the country. Approximately 10 million Americans each year discover that their personal information has been used to open fraudulent bank accounts, credit cards, or utility accounts – or used to commit crimes.  Between 2003 and 2005, reports of identity theft from Wisconsin residents to the Federal Trade Commission increased by 20%.

By acquiring just a small amount of information, identity thieves can destroy a person’s financial reputation, and cause endless stress on a person and their family.  Identity theft costs consumers millions of dollars in fraudulent charges each year, and can take years and cost thousands of dollars to recover from.

Businesses are also harmed by identity theft, costing them not only money – but sometimes their reputation as well.  In addition, businesses lose money, both in real dollars and in productivity, every time one of their customers becomes the victim of identity theft.

In March of 2006 I signed into law three measures to help keep our personal information secure.  Act 261 prohibits the sale or sharing of our phone records.  Act 140 permits individuals to place a freeze on their credit reports to keep financial information from getting into the hands of identity thieves.  Finally, Act 138 requires those that keep our personal information to notify us in the event that information is lost or illegally accessed.

These laws are important, but they are only the first steps.  To keep our personal information secure from 21st century criminals, we need to do more.  We need to pass stronger laws to protect our information and to enforce against identity thieves.  We need to help consumers protect themselves and to recover if they do become victims.  And, we need to work alongside the business community to develop ways to keep our information secure while still meeting the needs of businesses to collect and store information.

I’ve created the Wisconsin Office of Privacy Protection to help Wisconsin do just that.  The office will be a resource center for individuals, businesses, law enforcement, and government on issues of privacy protection and identity theft – and will help us coordinate our efforts.

We are making privacy protection a top priority so that we can keep our information safe from identity thieves

Sincerely,

Jim Doyle
Governor