[Federal Register Volume 70, Number 164 (Thursday, August 25, 2005)]
[Notices]
[Pages 49924-49925]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 05-16888]


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FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION


Agency Information Collection Activities; Reinstatement of 
Existing Collection; Comment Request

AGENCY: Federal Trade Commission (Commission or FTC).

ACTION: Notice.

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SUMMARY: The FTC intends to conduct a survey of consumers to advance 
its understanding of the incidence of identity theft (``ID Theft'') and 
to allow the FTC to better serve the people who experience it and the 
law enforcement agencies that investigate and prosecute it. The survey 
is a follow-up to the FTC's ID Theft Survey conducted in March 2003 and 
released in September 2003. Before gathering this information, the FTC 
is seeking public comments on its proposed consumer research. Comments 
will be considered before the FTC submits a request for Office of 
Management and Budget (OMB) review under the Paperwork Reduction Act 
(PRA), 44 U.S.C. 3501-3520.

DATES: Comments must be received on or before October 24, 2005.

ADDRESSES: Interested parties are invited to submit written comments. 
Comments should refer to ``ID Theft Survey: FTC File No. P034303'' to 
facilitate the organization of comments. A comment filed in paper form 
should include this reference both in the text and on the envelope and 
should be mailed or delivered, with two complete copies, to the 
following address: Federal Trade Commission/Office of the Secretary, 
Room H-135 (Annex E), 600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW., Washington, DC 
20580. Because paper mail in the Washington area and at the Commission 
is subject to delay, please consider submitting your comments in 
electronic form, as prescribed below. However, if the comment contains 
any material for which confidential treatment is requested, it must be 
filed in paper form, and the first page of the document must be clearly 
labeled ``Confidential.'' \1\ The FTC is requesting that any comment 
filed in paper form be sent by courier or overnight service, if 
possible.
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    \1\ Commission Rule 4.2(d), 16 CFR 4.2(d). The comment must be 
accompanied by an explicit request for confidential treatment, 
including the factual and legal basis for the request, and must 
identify the specific portions of the comment to be withheld from 
the public record. The request will be granted or denied by the 
Commission's General Counsel, consistent with applicable law and the 
public interest. See Commission Rule 4.9(c), 16 CFR 4.9(c).
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    Comments filed in electronic form should be submitted by clicking 
on the following Web link: https://secure.commentworks.com/FTC-IDTSurvey and following the instructions on the Web-based form. To 
ensure that the Commission considers an electronic comment, you must 
file it on the Web-based form at the https://secure.commentworks.com/FTC-IDTSurvey Web link. If this notice appears at http://www.regulations.gov, you may also file an electronic comment through 
that Web site. The Commission will consider all comments that 
regulations.gov forwards to it.
    The FTC Act and other laws the Commission administers permit the 
collection of public comments to consider and use in this proceeding as 
appropriate. All timely and responsive public comments will be 
considered by the Commission and will be available to the public on the 
FTC Web site, to the extent practicable, at www.ftc.gov. As a matter of 
discretion, the FTC makes every effort to remove home contact 
information for individuals from the public comments it receives before 
placing those comments on the FTC Web site. More information, including 
routine uses permitted by the Privacy Act, may be found in the FTC's 
privacy policy at http://www.ftc.gov/ftc/privacy.htm.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Requests for additional information 
should be addressed to Joanna P. Crane, Program Manager, Federal Trade 
Commission ID Theft Program, 600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW., Washington, 
DC 20580, (202) 326-3228.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
    Under the PRA, Federal agencies must obtain approval from OMB for 
each collection of information they conduct or sponsor. ``Collection of 
information'' means agency requests or requirements that members of the 
public submit reports, keep records, or provide information to a third 
party. 44 U.S.C. 3502(3), 5 CFR 1320.3(c). In 2003, OMB approved the 
FTC's request to conduct a survey on ID Theft and assigned OMB

[[Page 49925]]

Control Number 3084-0124. The FTC completed the consumer research in 
April 2003 and issued its report, Federal Trade Commission--Identity 
Theft Survey Report, in September 2003.\2\ As required by section 
3506(c)(2)(A) of the PRA, the FTC is providing this opportunity for 
public comment before requesting that OMB reinstate the clearance for 
the survey, which expired in June 2003.
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    \2\ The Report is available at http://www.ftc.gov/os/2003/09/synovatereport.pdf.
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    The FTC invites comments on: (1) Whether the proposed collections 
of information are necessary for the proper performance of the 
functions of the FTC, including whether the information will have 
practical utility; (2) the accuracy of the FTC's estimate of the burden 
of the proposed collections of information; (3) ways to enhance the 
quality, utility, and clarity of the information to be collected; and 
(4) ways to minimize the burden of collecting information on those who 
are to respond, including through the use of appropriate automated, 
electronic, mechanical, or other technological collection techniques or 
other forms of information technology, e.g., permitting electronic 
submission of responses. All comments should be filed as prescribed in 
the ADDRESSES section above, and must be received on or before October 
24, 2005.

1. Description of the Collection of Information and Proposed Use

    The FTC proposes to survey up to 5,000 consumers in order to gather 
specific information on the incidence of ID Theft in the general 
population. All information will be collected on a voluntary basis, and 
the identities of the consumers will remain confidential. Subject to 
OMB approval for the survey, the FTC has contracted with a consumer 
research firm to identify consumers and conduct the survey. The results 
will assist the FTC in determining the incidence of ID Theft in the 
general population and whether the type and frequency of ID Theft is 
changing, and will inform the FTC about how best to combat ID Theft.
    ID Theft has been the top consumer complaint reported to the FTC 
since calendar year 2000. The information collected by the survey will 
ensure that the FTC has accurate and timely information on the extent 
of ID Theft and its impact on victims. This information will be highly 
useful to Congress and others who often request statistical information 
on ID Theft from the FTC.
    The FTC intends to use a larger sample size than the 2003 survey to 
allow for a more in-depth analysis of the resulting data. The 
additional data points will allow for statistically significant samples 
for particular types of ID Theft and particular demographic 
characteristics. The questions will be very similar to the 2003 survey 
so that the results from the 2003 survey can be used as a baseline for 
a time-series analysis.\3\ The FTC may choose to conduct another 
follow-up survey in approximately two years.
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    \3\ The questionnaire for the 2003 survey is available as 
Appendix A to the Report.
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2. Estimated Hours Burden

    The FTC will pretest the survey on approximately 100 respondents to 
ensure that all questions are easily understood. This pretest will take 
approximately 3 minutes on average per person and 5 hours as a whole 
(100 respondents x 3 minutes each). Based on FTC staff's experience 
with the 2003 survey, the staff estimates that approximately 12 percent 
of those interviewed will have experienced ID Theft within the last 5 
years. Survey participants who have not experienced ID Theft in this 
period of time will only be asked the initial 4 or 5 survey questions. 
The staff expects that this will take less than 2 minutes. For those 
who have experienced ID Theft in the last 5 years, our experience with 
the earlier survey suggests that it will take about 12 to 15 minutes to 
complete the survey. The staff therefore anticipates that the average 
time per survey participant will be approximately 3 minutes. Answering 
the consumer survey will require approximately 250 hours as a whole 
(5,000 respondents x 3 minutes each). Thus, cumulative total burden 
hours for the first year of the clearance will approximate 255 hours.

3. Estimated Cost Burden

    The cost per respondent should be negligible. Participation is 
voluntary and will not require start-up, capital, or labor expenditures 
by respondents.

Christian S. White,
Acting General Counsel.
[FR Doc. 05-16888 Filed 8-24-05; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6750-01-P