I
107TH CONGRESS
1ST SESSION
H. R. 1478
To protect the privacy of the individual with respect to the Social Security
number and other personal information, and for other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
APRIL 4, 2001
Mr. KLECZKA introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Com-
mittee on Ways and Means, and in addition to the Committee on Finan-
cial Services, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker,
in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the juris-
diction of the committee concerned
A BILL
To protect the privacy of the individual with respect to
the Social Security number and other personal informa-
tion, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Personal Information
Privacy Act of 2001’’.
SEC. 2. CONFIDENTIAL TREATMENT OF CREDIT HEADER
INFORMATION.
Section 603(d) of the Fair Credit Reporting Act (15
U.S.C. 1681a(d)) is amended by inserting after the first
sentence the following: ‘‘The term also includes any other
identifying information of the consumer, except the name,
address, and telephone number of the consumer if listed
in a residential telephone directory available in the locality
of the consumer.’’.
SEC. 3. PROTECTING PRIVACY BY PROHIBITING USE OF
THE SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBER FOR COM-
MERCIAL 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 add-
ing at the end the following:
‘‘PROHIBITION OF CERTAIN MISUSES OF THE SOCIAL
SECURITY ACCOUNT NUMBER
‘‘SEC. 1148. (a) PROHIBITION OF COMMERCIAL AC-
QUISITION OR DISTRIBUTION.—No person may buy, sell,
offer for sale, take or give in exchange, or pledge or give
in pledge any information for the purpose, in whole or in
part, of conveying by means of such information any indi-
vidual’s social security account number, or any derivative
of such number, without the written consent of such indi-
vidual.
‘‘(b) PROHIBITION OF USE AS PERSONAL IDENTI-
FICATION NUMBER.—No person may utilize any individ-
ual’s social security account number, or any derivative of
such number, for purposes of identification of such indi-
vidual without the written consent of such individual.
‘‘(c) PREREQUISITES FOR CONSENT.—In order for
consent to exist under subsection (a) or (b), the person
engaged in, or seeking to engage in, an activity described
in such subsection shall—
‘‘(1) inform the individual of all the purposes
for which the number will be utilized and the per-
sons to whom the number will be known; and
‘‘(2) obtain affirmatively expressed consent in
writing.
‘‘(d) EXCEPTIONS.—Nothing in this section shall be
construed to prohibit any use of social security account
numbers permitted or required under section 205(c)(2) of
this Act, 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.
‘‘(e) CIVIL ACTION IN UNITED STATES DISTRICT
COURT; DAMAGES; ATTORNEYS FEES AND COSTS; NON-
EXCLUSIVE NATURE OF REMEDY.—
‘‘(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; and
‘‘(ii) liquidated damages of $25,000
or, in the case of a violation that was will-
ful and resulted in profit or monetary gain,
$50,000.
‘‘(2) ATTORNEY’S
FEES
AND
COSTS.—In the
case of a civil action brought under paragraph (1)
in which the aggrieved individual has substantially
prevailed, the court may assess against the respond-
ent 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 ag-
grieved 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 Com-
missioner 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 $25,000 for each such violation, and
‘‘(B) a civil money penalty of not more
than $500,000, if violations have occurred with
such frequency as to constitute a general busi-
ness practice.
‘‘(2) DETERMINATION
OF
VIOLATIONS.—Any
violation committed contemporaneously with respect
to the social security account 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 provi-
sions 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 ENFORCE-
MENT.—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 enforce-
ment under section 1028 of title 18, United States
Code (relating to fraud and related activity in con-
nection with identification documents). The Commis-
sioner shall enter into cooperative arrangements with
the Federal Trade Commission under section 5 of
the Identity Theft and Assumption Deterrence Act
of 1998 for purposes of achieving such coordination.
‘‘(g) REGULATION BY STATES.—Nothing in this sec-
tion shall be construed to prohibit any State authority
from enacting or enforcing laws consistent with this sec-
tion for the protection of privacy.’’.
(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.
(c) UNFAIR OR DECEPTIVE ACT OR PRACTICE.—Any
person who refuses to do business with an individual be-
cause the individual will not consent to that person receiv-
ing the social security number of such individual shall be
considered to have committed an unfair or deceptive act
or practice in violation of section 5 of the Federal Trade
Commission Act (15 U.S.C. 45). Action may be taken
under such section 5 against such a person.
SEC. 4. REPEAL OF CERTAIN PROVISIONS RELATING TO
DISTRIBUTION OF CONSUMER REPORTS IN
CONNECTION WITH CERTAIN TRANSACTIONS
NOT INITIATED BY THE CONSUMER.
(a) IN GENERAL.—Paragraph (1) of section 604(c)
of the Fair Credit Reporting Act (15 U.S.C. 1681b(c))
is amended by striking ‘‘any credit or insurance trans-
action that is not initiated by the consumer only if—’’ and
all that follows through the end of such paragraph and
inserting ‘‘any credit or insurance transaction that is not
initiated by the consumer only if the consumer provides
express written authorization, in accordance with para-
graph (2), to the agency to provide such report in connec-
tion with any such transaction.’’
(b) FULL DISCLOSURE REQUIRED.—Paragraph (2)
of section 604(c) of the Fair Credit Reporting Act (15
U.S.C. 1681b(c)) is amended to read as follows:
‘‘(2) FULL DISCLOSURE REQUIRED.—
‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—No authorization re-
ferred to in paragraph (1) with respect to any
consumer shall be effective unless the consumer
receives a notice before such authorization is
provided which fully and fairly discloses, in ac-
cordance with regulations which the Federal
Trade Commission and the Board of Governors
of the Federal Reserve System shall jointly pre-
scribe, what specifically is being authorized by
the consumer and the potential positive and
negative effects the provision of such authoriza-
tion will have on the consumer.
‘‘(B) FORM OF NOTICE.—The regulations
prescribed pursuant to subparagraph (A) shall
require that the notice required under such
subparagraph—
‘‘(i) be prominently displayed on a
document which is separate from any other
document; or
‘‘(ii) if the notice appears on a docu-
ment with other information, be placed in
a clear and conspicuous location on such
document and appear in type face which is
more conspicuous than the type face used
for any other information on such docu-
ment.’’.
(c) TECHNICAL AND CONFORMING AMENDMENT.—
Subsection (e) of section 604 of the Fair Credit Reporting
Act (15 U.S.C. 1681b) is amended to read as follows:
‘‘(e) [Repealed]’’.
SEC. 5. SALE OR TRANSFER OF TRANSACTION OR EXPERI-
ENCE INFORMATION PROHIBITED.
(a) IN GENERAL.—The Fair Credit Reporting Act
(15 U.S.C. 1681 et seq.) is amended by adding at the end
the following new section:
‘‘§ 626. Transaction or experience information
‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.—No person doing business with
a consumer may sell, transfer, or otherwise provide to any
other person, for the purpose of marketing such informa-
tion to any other person, any transaction or experience
information without the consumer’s express written con-
sent.
‘‘(b) TRANSACTION OR EXPERIENCE INFORMATION
DEFINED.—For purposes of this section, the term ‘trans-
action or experience information’ means any information
identifying the content or subject of 1 or more trans-
actions between the consumer and a person doing business
with a consumer, including any component part of any
transaction, any brand name involved, or any quantity or
category of merchandise involved in any part of the trans-
action.
‘‘(c) EXCEPTIONS.—Subsection (a) shall not apply
with respect to the following:
‘‘(1) Communication of transaction or experi-
ence information solely among persons related by
common ownership or affiliated by corporate control.
‘‘(2) Information provided pursuant to the
order of a court having jurisdiction to issue such
order or pursuant to a subpoena issued in connec-
tion with proceedings before a Federal grand jury.
‘‘(3) Information provided in connection with
the licensing or registration by a government agency
or department, or any transfer of such license or
registration, of any personal property bought, sold,
or transferred by the consumer.
‘‘(4) Information required to be provided in
connection with any transaction in real estate.
‘‘(5) Information required to be provided in
connection with perfecting a security interest in per-
sonal property.
‘‘(6) Information relating to the amount of any
transaction or any credit extended in connection
with a transaction with a consumer.’’.
(b) TECHNICAL AND CONFORMING AMENDMENT.—
Section 603(d)(2)(A) is amended by striking ‘‘(A) any—
’’ and inserting ‘‘(A) subject to section 626, any—’’.
(c) CLERICAL AMENDMENT.—The table of sections
for the Fair Credit Reporting Act is amended by adding
at the end the following new item:
‘‘626. Transaction or experience information.’’.
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