[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 71 (Friday, June 9, 2000)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E938-E939]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




             SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBER PROTECTION ACT OF 2000

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. EDWARD J. MARKEY

                            of massachusetts

                    in the house of representatives

                         Thursday, June 8, 2000

  Mr. MARKEY. Mr. Speaker, I am pleased today to introduce a 
legislative proposal by Vice President Gore that would outlaw the 
practice of purchasing or selling Social Security numbers.
  Last year, a man named Liam Youens was stalking a 21-year old New 
Hampshire woman named Amy Boyer. Youens reportedly purchased Amy 
Boyer's Social Security number from an Internet Web site for $45. Using 
this information, he was able to track her down, a process that he 
chillingly detailed on an Internet Web site that he named after his 
target. Finally, last October; this demented stalker fatally shot Amy 
Boyer in front of the dental office where she worked. Afterwards, he 
turned the gun on himself.
  This terrible tragedy underscores the fact that while the Social 
Security number was originally intended to be used only for the 
purposes of collecting Social Security taxes and administering the 
program's benefits, it has over the years evolved into a ubiquitous 
national personal identification number which is subject to misuse and 
abuse. The unregulated sale and purchase of these numbers is a 
significant factor in a growing range of illegal activities, including 
fraud, identity theft, and tragically, stalkings and now, even murders.
  Today, if you open up a bank account, apply for a loan, buy 
insurance, get a credit card, sign up for telephone service or electric 
or gas utility service, you are almost invariably asked to provide a 
merchant with your Social Security number. Over the years, this number 
has become a key to verifying a person's identity. As a result, it has 
become increasingly clear that there are growing and serious privacy 
risks are being created by unrestricted commerce in Social Security 
numbers, and resulting abuses of this number, that require immediate 
legislative action.
  The risks and abuses associated with misuse of the Social Security 
number are only being magnified by the rapid growth of electronic 
commerce. Right now, only $5 billion of the $860 billion in annual 
retail sales currently occur over the Internet. But that figure will 
continue to grow exponentially in the future. So, the question we must 
ask is how are we going to adjust our laws to deal with this new 
medium? How will we animate the New Economy with our old values--such 
as our cherished right to privacy?
  Today, the real privacy challenge we are facing isn't Big Brother; 
it's Big Browser. When it comes to your financial records, there are 
very few protections against a financial services firm from disclosing 
every check you've ever written, every credit card charge you've ever 
made, the medical exam you got before you received insurance. And as 
you surf the Web, there are no rules in place to prevent various web 
sites from collecting information about what sites you are viewing and 
how long you are viewing them. If you buy anything over the Internet, 
that information can be linked up to other personal identifiers to 
create disturbingly detailed digital dossiers that can profile your 
lifestyle, your interests, your hobbies, or your habits. I have 
sponsored or cosponsored separate legislation, H.R. 1057, H.R. 3320, 
H.R. 3321, and H.R. 4380, which are aimed at addressing these broader 
privacy problems.
  But we also know that the Social Security number is an critically 
important personal identifier that many online and offline businesses 
wish to obtain about consumers. Consumers who value their family's 
privacy, however, have a compelling interest in not allowing this 
number to be used to tie together bits and pieces of information in 
various databases into an integrated electronic profile of their 
interests and behavior that can be zapped around the world in a 
nanosecond to anyone who is willing to pay the price.
  If you do a simple Internet search in which you enter the words 
``Social Security Numbers,'' you will turn up links to dozens of web 
sites that offer to provide you, for a fee, with social security 
numbers for other citizens, or to link a social security number that 
you might have with a name, address and telephone number. Where are the 
data-mining firms and private detective agencies that offer these 
services obtaining these numbers? In all likelihood, they are accessing 
information from the databases of credit bureaus, financial services 
companies or other commercial firms.
  If someone actually obtains a Social Security number from one of 
these sites, they have a critically important piece of information that 
can be used to locate the individual, get access to information about 
the individual's personal finances, or engage in a variety of illegal 
activities. By bringing a halt to unregulated commerce in Social 
Security numbers, the bill I am introducing today will help reduce the 
incidence of pretexting crimes, identity thefts and other frauds or 
crimes involving misuse of a person's Social Security number.
  We need to take this action now if we are going to fully protect the 
public's right to privacy by preventing sales of Social Security 
numbers. That is why I am pleased today to be joining with the Senator 
from California (Ms. Feinstein) in introducing Vice President Gore's 
legislative proposal to outlaw this practice. Our bill would make it a 
civil and

[[Page E939]]

criminal offense for a person to sell or purchase Social Security 
numbers. Under the bill, the FTC would be given rulemaking authority to 
restrict the sale of Social Security numbers, determine appropriate 
exemptions, and to enforce civil compliance with the bill's 
restrictions. The bill would also authorize the states to enforce 
compliance, and provide for appropriate criminal penalties.
  I look forward to working with the Vice President, who has been a 
leader in pressing for tougher privacy protections, as well as Senator 
Feinstein, and my House colleagues to enact this important privacy 
protection proposal into law.

                          ____________________