Disappeared News

“Hawaii’s laws do not adequately protect citizens against breaches, which occur at an alarming rate in Hawaii. Hawaii residents generally bear the full burden of recovering from breaches and identity theft” – Aaron Titus, Liberty Coalition

The Liberty Coalition has completed Part 2 of their report on breaches of personal information in Hawaii and will hold a press conference next Monday to answer questions on the report. Advance copies, containing suggestions for new legislation, have been circulated to selected state legislators. The report will be posted on their website on Monday, December 20, 2010.

The report will facilitate the introduction of several bills in the 2011 legislative session designed to remedy shortfalls in Hawaii’s consumer privacy laws.

Liberty Coalition is a Washington DC policy institute that “works in conjunction with more than
80 partner organizations from across the political spectrum.  Our primary focus is preserving the Bill of Rights, personal autonomy and individual privacy.” 

Aaron Titus, Information Privacy Director of the Liberty Coalition, was instrumental in discovering and publicizing the massive data breach of University of Hawaii student and faculty personal information. The first part of his report gave the University of Hawaii an "F" for Privacy and Data Security and noted that:

• Since 2005, at least 479,000 Hawaii records have been breached: Almost one for every three residents.
• The University of Hawaii is responsible for 54% of all breaches in Hawaii (259,000 records); more than all other Hawaii organizations combined.
• As the single biggest contributor to Hawaii data breaches, the University of Hawaii has a pattern of breaches and unfulfilled promises.

Key findings of the new report include:

• Victims of personal information breaches are four times more likely to
  be victims of identity theft
• 20% of breach victims suffer ID Theft.
• In Hawaii, more than 95,000 breach victims will likely suffer ID
  theft, costing businesses and banks an estimated $571 million and costing
  consumers more than $40 million out-of-pocket.

The report makes seven specific legislative proposals to improve Hawaii privacy laws, including:

• Establish an Identity Fraud Watchdog Agency or non-profit
  organization;
• Create a Victims' Trust Account to cover costs of breaches, and a
  private right of action;
• Close the "Deception Loophole" and make Hawaii's State agencies
  accountable for deceptive trade practices, if they perform services like
  private companies.
• A detailed analysis of Hawaii's privacy laws and legislative history
• Some proposed legislative language

Aaron Titus has scheduled a telephone press conference for Monday, December 20th, 2010 at 11:00am Hawaii time/ 4:00pm Eastern time, to respond to all questions about the report. Participants should dial (610) 214-0200 and punch in code: 863597# to join the call.

See these earlier articles.

Anyone may enter their name into a search engine at the website nationalidwatch.org to see if their data was involved in the breach. An audio file of the first conference call is available for download on the same page.

Permalink posted by Larry @ 12/16/2010 06:49:00 PM