Strengthen identity protections

Government can't fairly be expected to provide blanket protection from the growing modern menace of identity theft. But it is quite reasonable to demand that government not exacerbate the threat by recklessly violating personal privacy in a manner which makes that crime much too easy.

Unfortunately, numerous state governments have been doing just that. As The Associated Press reported this week: "Tax forms were sent out to thousands of people in Wisconsin with their Social Security numbers on the mailing labels. A vendor hired by the state of Georgia lost a computer disk with the names and Social Security numbers of 2.9 million people. A disk with similar information disappeared in Rhode Island."

Similar examples of lax security on vital personal data abound. Betty "BJ" Ostergren, a "privacy activist" based in Virginia, has succeeded in getting the Social Security numbers of, among other celebrities, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and former Secretary of State Colin Powell.

But you don't have to be famous to be vulnerable to such intrusions. As Ms. Ostergren told the AP: "Its just amazing to me that we've got this stuff and we are putting millions of people at risk."

Some states have begun tightening their policies protecting what should be private information.

And our state, thanks to the Financial Identity Fraud and Identity Theft Protection Act signed by Gov. Mark Sanford earlier this month, has mandated overdue limitations on access to credit records.

Such updated regulations are welcome. Yet according to etiolated.org, a consumer-advocacy group, only 21 percent of "data-loss" cases in our nation since 2000 have come from the federal and state government, with 40 percent traced to private businesses and 39 percent from educational, medical and nonprofit sources.

But regardless of which sector produces the biggest portion of data losses, the overall pie is huge — and growing. The Privacy Rights Clearinghouse reports that more than 224 million records with "sensitive information" have been compromised by security breakdowns since 2005 — and the Federal Trade Commission estimated a $1.2 billion toll in consumer fraud and identity theft last year.

Not only should elected officials safeguard our privacy, but it's up to all of us to exercise some self-protection by being properly wary with our personal data.