[Congressional Bills 106th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 2554 Introduced in Senate (IS)]







106th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                S. 2554

To amend title XI of the Social Security Act to prohibit the display of 
an individual's social security number for commercial purposes without 
                     the consent of the individual.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                              May 15, 2000

  Mr. Gregg (for himself and Mr. Dodd) introduced the following bill; 
     which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Finance

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
To amend title XI of the Social Security Act to prohibit the display of 
an individual's social security number for commercial purposes without 
                     the consent of the individual.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as ``Amy Boyer's Law''.

SEC. 2. PROTECTING PRIVACY BY PROHIBITING DISPLAY OF THE SOCIAL 
              SECURITY NUMBER TO THE GENERAL PUBLIC FOR COMMERCIAL 
              PURPOSES WITHOUT CONSENT.

    (a) In General.--Part A of title XI of the Social Security Act (42 
U.S.C. 1301 et seq.) is amended by adding at the end the following:

     ``prohibition of certain misuses of the social security number

    ``Sec. 1150A. (a) Limitation on Display.--Except as otherwise 
provided in this section, no person may display to the public any 
individual's social security number, or any identifiable derivative of 
such number, without the affirmatively expressed consent, 
electronically or in writing, of such individual.
    ``(b) Prohibition of Wrongful Use as Personal Identification 
Number.--No person may obtain any individual's social security number, 
or any identifiable derivative of such number, for purposes of locating 
or identifying an individual with the intent to physically injure, 
harm, or use the identity of the individual for illegal purposes.
    ``(c) Prerequisites for Consent.--In order for consent to exist 
under subsection (a), the person displaying, or seeking to display, an 
individual's social security number, or any identifiable derivative of 
such number, shall--
            ``(1) inform the individual of the general purposes for 
        which the number will be utilized and the types of persons to 
        whom the number may be available; and
            ``(2) obtain affirmatively expressed consent electronically 
        or in writing.
    ``(d) Exceptions.--Nothing in this section shall be construed to--
            ``(1) prohibit any use of social security numbers permitted 
        or required under section 205(c)(2), section 7(a)(2) of the 
        Privacy Act of 1974 (5 U.S.C. 552a note; 88 Stat. 1909), or 
        section 6109(d) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986;
            ``(2) modify, limit, or supersede the operation of, or the 
        conduct of any activity permitted under, the Fair Credit 
        Reporting Act (15 U.S.C. 1681 et seq.) or title V of the Gramm-
        Leach-Bliley Act (15 U.S.C. 6801 et seq.);
            ``(3) except as set forth in subsection (b), prohibit or 
        limit the use of a social security number to retrieve 
        information about an individual without displaying such number 
        to the public;
            ``(4) prohibit or limit the use of the social security 
        number for purposes of law enforcement, including investigation 
        of fraud; or
            ``(5) prohibit or limit the use of a social security number 
        obtained from a public record or document lawfully acquired 
        from a governmental agency.
    ``(e) Civil Action in United States District Court; Damages; 
Attorneys Fees and Costs; Regulatory Coordination.--
            ``(1) In general.--Any individual aggrieved by any act of 
        any person in violation of this section may bring a civil 
        action in a United States district court to recover--
                    ``(A) such preliminary and equitable relief as the 
                court determines to be appropriate; and
                    ``(B) the greater of--
                            ``(i) actual damages;
                            ``(ii) liquidated damages of $2,500; or
                            ``(iii) in the case of a violation that was 
                        willful and resulted in profit or monetary 
                        gain, liquidated damages of $10,000.
            ``(2) Attorney's fees and costs.--In the case of a civil 
        action brought under paragraph (1)(B)(iii) in which the 
        aggrieved individual has substantially prevailed, the court may 
        assess against the respondent a reasonable attorney's fee and 
        other litigation costs and expenses (including expert fees) 
        reasonably incurred.
            ``(3) Statute of limitations.--No action may be commenced 
        under this subsection more than 3 years after the date on which 
        the violation was or should reasonably have been discovered by 
        the aggrieved individual.
            ``(4) Nonexclusive remedy.--The remedy provided under this 
        subsection shall be in addition to any other lawful remedy 
        available to the individual.
    ``(f) Civil Money Penalties.--
            ``(1) In general.--Any person who the Commissioner of 
        Social Security determines has violated this section shall be 
        subject, in addition to any other penalties that may be 
        prescribed by law, to--
                    ``(A) a civil money penalty of not more than $5,000 
                for each such violation, and
                    ``(B) a civil money penalty of not more than 
                $50,000, if violations have occurred with such 
                frequency as to constitute a general business practice.
            ``(2) Determination of violations.-- Any willful violation 
        committed contemporaneously with respect to the social security 
        numbers of 2 or more individuals by means of mail, 
telecommunication, or otherwise shall be treated as a separate 
violation with respect to each such individual.
            ``(3) Enforcement procedures.--The provisions of section 
        1128A (other than subsections (a), (b), (f), (h), (i), (j), and 
        (m), and the first sentence of subsection (c)) and the 
        provisions of subsections (d) and (e) of section 205 shall 
        apply to civil money penalties under this subsection in the 
        same manner as such provisions apply to a penalty or proceeding 
        under section 1128A(a), except that, for purposes of this 
        paragraph, any reference in section 1128A to the Secretary 
        shall be deemed a reference to the Commissioner of Social 
        Security.
            ``(4) Coordination with criminal enforcement.--The 
        Commissioner of Social Security shall take such actions as are 
        necessary and appropriate to assure proper coordination of the 
        enforcement of the provisions of this section with criminal 
        enforcement under section 1028 of title 18, United States Code 
        (relating to fraud and related activity in connection with 
        identification documents). The Commissioner shall enter into 
        cooperative arrangements with the Federal Trade Commission 
        under section 5 of the Identity Theft and Assumption Deterrence 
        Act of 1998 (18 U.S.C. 1028 note) for purposes of achieving 
        such coordination.
    ``(g) Limitation on Regulation by States.--No requirement or 
prohibition may be imposed under the laws of any State with respect to 
any subject matter regulated under subsections (a) through (d).
    ``(h) Definitions.--In this section, the term `display to the 
general public' means the intentional placing of an individual's social 
security number, or identifying portion thereof, in a viewable manner 
on a web site that is available to the general public or in material 
made available or sold to the general public.''.
    (b) Effective Date.--The amendment made by subsection (a) applies 
with respect to violations occurring on and after the date which is 2 
years after the date of enactment of this Act.

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