Protect your Privacy!

Consumer privacy has become such a serious issue that state and federal legislation has been enacted to protect our privacy. There are several laws that require businesses to destroy rather than simply discard personal information.

ALASKA PERSONAL INFORMATION PROTECTION ACT

House Bill 65 was passed by the Legislature during the 2007-2008 session, and became law on July 1, 2009. It is found in the Alaska Statutes at AS 45.48. The law provides several protections for personal information, including: Sec. 45.48.500 - .590 - Disposal of Records This article contains provisions that require a business and a government agency to take reasonable measures to protect against unauthorized access to, or use of, records when disposing of records containing personal information. To comply with this requirement, a business or government agency can implement compliance and monitoring policies that require the destruction of personal information, or enter a contract with a third party for the disposal and destruction of the records. A business or government agency is not liable for the disposal after relinquishing control of the records to a third party that is in the business of record destruction.

FEDERAL: HIPAA

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 is one of the first and most well know of the laws. Security standards were set that establish measures to ensure the security of healthcare information maintained by healthcare providers, healthcare institutions as well as health insurance companies. This information must be properly destroyed by shredding, as burning is illegal in California.

Gramm-Leach Bliley Act

Also known as the GLB Act places significant restrictions on the use of customer information by those in the financial industry (insurance, banks, securities, mortgage, escrow, lenders, etc.) Such financial institutions must disclose their privacy policies to their customers.

FACTA

The Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act establishes a national system of fraud detection so victims can alert all three major credit rating agencies with a single phone call. Starting June 1, 2005, employers must destroy personal information about their employees before they throw it out if they obtained the information from a credit report.

US SUPREME COURT

Supreme Court ruling on “Dumpster Diving” is that it’s not illegal. When it ruled in the California v. Greenwood, 486 U.S. 35 (1988), the US Supreme Court was looking to protect law enforcement, not dumpster divers. Nonetheless, their ruling is the overall US law, unless a municipality specifically makes trash picking illegal. “Dumpster Diving” is the predominate method of obtaining information by those involved in crimes related to: • Identity Theft • Telephone Fraud • Computer Hackers • Credit Card Fraud • Industrial Espionage