‘‘(ii) responsible for the rea-
sonable actual costs of any notices 
provided under this section. 
‘‘(B) 
IDENTIFICATION
TO
CON-
SUMERS.—No such agreement shall re-
strict the ability of a consumer re-
porter to identify the entity respon-
sible for the breach to consumers 
‘‘(C) NO CHARGE TO CONSUMERS.— 
The cost for the notices and file moni-
toring described in subparagraph (A) 
may not be charged to the related con-
sumers. 
‘‘(h) FINANCIAL FRAUD MITIGATION.— 
‘‘(1) FREE FILE MONITORING.—Any con-
sumer reporter that is required to provide 
notice to a consumer under subsection 
(f)(1)(C)(i), or that is deemed to be in com-
pliance with such requirement by oper-
ation of subsection (j), if requested by the 
consumer before the end of the 90-day pe-
riod beginning on the date of such notice, 
shall make available to the consumer, free 
of charge and for at least a 6-month pe-
riod— 
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‘‘(A) a service that monitors na-
tionwide credit activity regarding a 
consumer from a consumer reporting 
agency described in section 603(p); or 
‘‘(B) a service that provides iden-
tity-monitoring to consumers on a na-
tionwide basis that meets the guide-
lines described in paragraph (2). 
‘‘(2) IDENTITY MONITORING NETWORKS.— 
The regulators described in subsection 
(k)(1) shall issue guidelines on the type of 
identity monitoring networks that are 
likely to detect fraudulent identity activ-
ity regarding a consumer on a nationwide 
basis and would satisfy the requirements 
of paragraph (1). 
‘‘(3) JOINT RULEMAKING FOR SAFE HAR-
BOR.—In accordance with subsection (j), 
the Secretary of the Treasury, the Board 
of Governors of the Federal Reserve Sys-
tem, and the Commission shall jointly de-
velop standards and guidelines, which 
shall be issued by all functional regu-
latory agencies, that, in any case in 
which— 
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‘‘(A) free file monitoring is offered 
under paragraph (1) to a consumer; 
‘‘(B) subsequent to the offer, an-
other party misuses sensitive financial 
identity information on the consumer 
obtained through the breach of data 
security (that gave rise to such offer) 
to commit identity theft against the 
consumer; and 
‘‘(C) at the time of such breach the 
consumer reporter met the require-
ments of subsections (a) and (d), 
exempts the consumer reporter from any 
liability for any harm to the consumer re-
sulting from such misuse, other than any 
direct pecuniary loss or loss pursuant to 
agreement by the consumer reporter, ex-
cept that nothing in this paragraph shall 
be construed as creating any inference 
with respect to the establishment or exist-
ence of any such liability. 
‘‘(i) CREDIT SECURITY FREEZE.— 
‘‘(1) DEFINITIONS.—For purposes of this 
subsection, the following definitions shall 
apply: 
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100 
‘‘(A) SECURITY
FREEZE.—The term 
‘security freeze’ means a notice placed 
in a credit report on a consumer, at 
the request of the consumer who is a 
victim of identity theft, that prohibits 
the consumer reporting agency from 
releasing all or any part of the credit 
report, without the express authoriza-
tion of the consumer, except as other-
wise provided in this section. 
‘‘(B) REVIEWING THE ACCOUNT; AC-
COUNT
REVIEW.—The terms ‘reviewing 
the account’ and ‘account review’ in-
clude activities related to account 
maintenance, monitoring, credit line 
increases, and account upgrades and 
enhancements. 
‘‘(2) REQUEST FOR A SECURITY FREEZE.— 
‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—A consumer who 
has been the victim of identity theft 
may place a security freeze on the file 
of such consumer at any consumer re-
porting agency by— 
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