April 24, 2007
The Honorable Mark Pryor
Chair
Commerce Subcommittee on Consumer Affairs,
Insurance, and Automotive Safety
United States Senate
Washington, DC 20510
Dear Mr. Chairman:
Consumers Union, the nonprofit publisher of Consumer Reports, appreciates your sponsorship of legislation addressing data privacy and security. Consumers are rightfully concerned about the privacy and security of sensitive personal information about them which is held by third parties. We appreciate your leadership in addressing this important matter.
In the past two years, security breaches have been announced involving over 150 million records containing sensitive personal information about individuals. At the same time, identity theft continues to bring U.S. consumers missed credit opportunities as well as lost time and added stress as the individual consumer must work to resolve the problems created by false accounts and unauthorized charges.