| Comment Number: | 531096-00150 |
| Received: | 8/27/2007 1:40:52 PM |
| Organization: | Two Rivers Research & Consulting |
| Commenter: | Andrew Schmidt III |
| State: | CO |
| Agency: | Federal Trade Commission |
| Rule: | Private Sector Use of SSNs |
| No Attachments |
Comments:
Dear Sir or Madam: I am a Private Investigator whose practice is devoted almost entirely to Criminal Defense Investigation. Often, I am required to locate witnesses who may exonerate my clients. Without access to SSNs this becomes very difficult or impossible. Thus, restricting access to these numbers results in the erosion of the rights of the criminally accused. This damages our entire judicial system by restricting the ability of attorneys and their staff to effectively defend their clients. In addition to Criminal Defense, I am often asked to serve legal documents for Civil matters. To deny access to SSNs further limits the rights of citizens under our civil system as well. Citizens have a right to seek redress for civil matters in court and this right is eroded anytime our government makes it more difficult to locate and identify people who may be the subject of such civil matters. In addition, people with legitimate reasons should be able to confirm and investigate the background of potential business or life partners or employees and doing this requires access to SSNs. To deny this access opens the door for fraud, heartbreak and increased employment liability. I do not believe everyone should have access to SSNs, but I do not believe a knee-jerk "deny everyone but law enforcement" reaction is at all appropriate, either. The data providers I currently use are very strict and very demanding in who they accepts as customers and I believe they take appropriate precautions to control access to their information (no, I never used ChoicePoint). Further, the problem of identity theft is not wholly with those who sell data, but also with the consumer who does nothing to educate themselves about the dangers they face or the precautions they can take to prevent the crime. Responsibility also lies with legislatures who fail to assign appropriate punishments for Identity Theft crimes and with Law Enforcement Agencies that fail to throughly investigate such matters. For good or ill, our society has used the SSN as the identifier for people and as a link for every bit of information it considers vital. While reasonable efforts should be made to protect the individual's privacy the fact is that we will never have 100% protection - it is simply not possible. A considered and reasonable limitation of information access is what is called for - Private Investigators, Process Servers, Creditors, Law Enforcement, Banks, Local, State and Federal Government all have legitimate reasons for access to the Social Security Number and all these groups should continue to have access to this information. The FTC should partner with representatives from these groups to develop policies that will promote access for legitimate needs AND protection of privacy. It is my sincere hope that the FTC will realize that simply shutting the door to access is not the answer to the problems of Identity Theft and Privacy Protection. Respectfully, Andrew Schmidt Private Investigator