*SUBJECT: SB 1384 (SIMITIAN): CONSUMER INFORMATION PRIVACY*

* THIRD READING*

* OPPOSE – AS AMEDNED MAY 15, 2012*

Members, California State Senate

As a licensed private investigator, I urge you to vote no on SB 1384
[Simitian] as amended May 15, 2012, which would allow “freezing” non-credit
consumer reports that businesses rely upon to positively identify their
customers and reduce the threat of fraud.

*This bill would not prevent identity theft. *This bill purports to
protect consumers by reducing the incidents of identity theft. Current law
already allows “freezing” of *credit* reports which stops identity thieves
from obtaining goods or services in another’s name. However, *non-credit
consumer* reports are derived from public records, do not contain any
credit-related information and are not used by thieves to steal goods or
services in someone else’s name. LexisNexis Risk Solutions, one of the
nation’s largest producers of no-credit consumer reports, *searched 22.9
million data points* and found *not one instance of an individual
attempting to access another individual’s non-credit consumer report.*

*This bill would take away an important fraud-reducing tool. *Non-credit consumer reports are used by retailers, non-profit organizations, lessors,
insurers and other businesses to help positively confirm the identity of
individuals seeking to do business with them. Freezing non-credit consumer
reports would take away an important tool used to assess risk, like bogus
insurance claims filed, evictions, Medicare/MediCAL scams, and other
fraudulent behavior. Non-credit consumer reports are used to confirm an
individual is not a fraudster impersonating someone else. Allowing freezes
for accurate but adverse consumer histories would open a door to physical
and financial risks to businesses, consumers, common tenants and co-workers.

Allowing freezes of non-credit consumer reports would do nothing to protect
consumers from identity theft. To the contrary, non-credit consumer reports
are an important identification, risk assessment and fraud reducing tool
used by businesses every day. Accordingly, for the foregoing reasons, I
respectfully request that you *OPPOSE SB1384 (Simitian).*

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