Private investigators may loose access to credit bureau headers under pending legislation

"Two major developments are scheduled in Congress over the next few days of critical importance to private investigators and security firms.

First, the House Financial Services Committee has tentatively scheduled a vote next week on HR 3149, “The Equal Employment for All Act”. That bill would prohibit employers from accessing credit reports. NCISS is joining with a coalition of major industry groups to ask the Committee not to consider the bill. We joined with the same group when Senator Feinstein proposed identical legislation as an amendment to the financial reform legislation, HR 4173, ‘The Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2009’’. That proposal was stopped in the Senate. In addition, our advocate met with staff of members of the subcommittee at the time that a hearing was held to explain how such reports are used by investigators. We may be calling on you to contact your representatives on this issue if the vote is formally scheduled.

In another critical development, the House Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade and Consumer Protection will be holding a hearing Thursday afternoon on major privacy legislation which could also have a dramatic impact on private investigators. The Subcommittee will be reviewing two bills that would require that notice be provided and consent be obtained from individuals from whom “sensitive” data are obtained. HR 5777, ‘‘Building Effective Strategies to Promote Responsibility Accountability Choice Transparency Innovation Consumer Expectations and Safeguards Act’’ or the ‘‘BEST PRACTICES Act’’ by Representative Bobby Rush (D-IL) was introduced Monday. The subcommittee will also consider a similar draft bill by Representative Rick Boucher (D-VA), who chairs the subcommittee on Communications, Technology and the Internet.

Recent publicity regarding behavioral advertising, privacy changes at Facebook, and some practices by Google have increased pressure on Congress to act to limit data collection from individuals who have not granted their permission. Although the activities of private investigators do not appear to be the targets of the legislation, the definitions in these proposals appear to include investigative functions. Although the bills include numerous exceptions, none appears to apply to private investigators. For example, HR 5777 exempts many businesses which collect information from or about less than 10,000 individuals in a year. But the exception does not apply to those who use “covered information to study, monitor, or analyze the behavior of individuals as the person’s primary business”. The exception also does not include those who collect “sensitive information”. "  
Read the full statement and links to bills at NCISS
Location Oakland, Ca - Private Investigator

California Bill Prevents Social Networking Sites from Displaying Home Address & Telephone # – How can this be…bad?

"There’s a bill moving in California (SB 1361) that restricts how social networking sites display the personal information of 13 to 17 yr olds. It’s billed as a privacy bill and at first glance seems relatively harmless — after all, kids don’t need to be broadcasting their contact information, right? Maybe. It all depends.

It depends on the situation, obviously. We teach our kids to recognize risky situations and to react appropriately.

But whether or not teens are at risk by publishing their telephone numbers is not the threshold question here. The law presumes such and I’m not aware of any specific findings offered in testimony about the bill.

Instead, the issue at hand is whether we need a law to restrict social networking websites from publishing certain information from teenagers. And with any law, there’s always the corresponding principle of unintended consequences."  
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Location Oakland, Ca - Private Investigator

New proposal would require identification to buy prepaid cellphones

"A bipartisan pair of Senate leaders have introduced a first-of-its-kind bill aimed at stopping terrorist suspects such as the would-be Times Square bomber from hiding their identities by using prepaid cellphones to plot their attacks.

The legislation sponsored by Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Sen. John Cornyn (R-Tex.) would require buyers to present identification when purchasing a prepaid cellphone and require phone companies to keep the information on file, as they do with users of landline phones and subscription-based cellphones. The proposal would require the carriers to retain the data for 18 months after the phone's deactivation."  
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Location Oakland, Ca - Private Investigator

Colorado Rejects Bill Restricting Video Surveillance

"he Colorado Senate Judiciary Committee last night defeated a bill that would have limited the use of surveillance of employees who have submitted a workers' compensation claim.

Among other things, HB 1012, would have restricted video surveillance to only when the insurer or employer had a reasonable basis to suspect that the employee committed fraud or made a material misstatement concerning the claim; and would have required the insurer or employer to destroy all materials collected during the surveillance within five years, unless the materials were reasonably necessary to resolve an ongoing claim of fraud.

"We and others in the anti-fraud community felt the bill wasn't the best bill out there and didn't need to go forward," said Howard Goldblatt, director of government affairs for the Coalition Against Insurance Fraud."

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Location Oakland, Ca - Private Investigator

California bill would have eliminated access to names and addresses in crime records - Fails in committee

"A bill that would have eliminated California reporters’ access to names and addresses of most crime victims failed on a 4-2 vote this morning in the Assembly Committee on Public Safety, reports Melissa Cabral for the online news organization Crime Voice. The bill, up for reconsideration in the committee after failing its first hearing two weeks ago, was opposed by the California Newspaper Publishers Association and by Californians Aware, which called the central arguments supporting the measure a myth and a distortion." Read more
Location Oakland, Ca - Private Investigator

Proposed privacy legislation could nix business access to Social security numbers and addresses

"Proposed legislation on privacy landed with a thud when it was unveiled Tuesday — drawing criticism from both Internet and advertising industries, which are leery of regulation, and consumer privacy advocates, who say the bill does far too little to protect consumers."

"The bill stipulates that as a general rule companies can collect information about consumers unless a person opts out of that data collection — a point of contention among privacy advocates.

The regulation also specifies standards for the collection and use of personally identifiable information. Companies must disclose to consumers if they are collecting personally identifiable information and how they are using that data. Consumers must give a company permission to share that personally identifiable information with outside companies.

Companies also would need permission from consumers to collect sensitive data, such as medical records, financial accounts, Social Security numbers and geographic location information."

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Location Oakland, Ca - Private Investigator