Congress may gut credit-report protections

A new state law that would allow Floridians to block access to their credit histories could be superseded by one of several federal proposals now working their ways through Congress.

Consumer advocates say one of the federal measures in particular would eviscerate the state 'security-freeze' law, which was designed to protect credit files from identity theft.

If enacted, the federal bill would also nullify Florida's existing 'breach notification' law and similar laws in other states that require companies to notify people when their personal data is stolen or otherwise compromised, critics of the federal measure say.

'It is the worst consumer-data bill ever,' said Ed Mierzwinski, Florida program director for the Public Interest Research Group, a watchdog organization based in Washington, D.C. 'It not only pre-empts other state laws that make a [security] freeze available to everyone, but its pre-emption is so broad it may prevent other state consumer-protection measures in the future.'

Representatives of the financial-services industry say such reactions are extreme and premature. They say the federal bill in question is only one of many proposals now before Congress, and most of them incorporate many of the protections included in state law.

Full article from the Orlando Sentinel