In response to the rising number of cases of identity theft — in which a criminal steals a person’s personal information and uses it to commit fraud or theft — the Oregon legislature is working on a bill aimed at curbing the number of such incidents around the state.
Senate Bill 647 would require specific measures to be taken when disposing of personal information. The bill passed the Oregon State Senate on a 29-1 vote, and has yet to be assigned to a House committee. The bill is sponsored by Senate Democratic Leader Kate Brown, D-Portland.
“The intent of the bill is to reduce the problem of identification theft by requiring businesses to delete or shred all personal information,” she said.
Brown said she became aware of the issue after a media outlet showed her footage of a reporter scavenging through trash bins and finding personal information.
EPD spokeswoman Jan Power said the department has seen an increase in identity theft in the Eugene area. Due to the popularity of the Internet and the increased availability of computer technology and programs to forge documents, Power said identity theft and fraud are becoming more of a problem.
Power recommended many things individuals can do to reduce their susceptibility to having their identity stolen, such as placing outgoing mail in locked mail bins, having personal checks delivered directly to the bank and making sure to cut up or shred credit card offers before disposing of them.
The department’s Financial Crimes Unit, a full-time force attacking the financial crimes in the Eugene area, employs one sergeant and four full-time detectives.
“This is a simple, no-nonsense bill that ensures that people’s personal information is being discarded in a manner that is safe, secure and unrecoverable,” Brown said, adding that the problem continues to grow, and a state mandate is necessary to control it.
“People’s lives are being thrown into turmoil,” Brown said. “Their identities are essentially being taken away from them and their otherwise good names are being tarnished.”
Educational institutions, however, do not fall under the parameters set by this bill. Brown said that she believed there were laws already in place to require schools to protect this type of information.
At the University, measures are taken to ensure the confidentiality of student’s personal information. In Oregon Hall, both the Office of the Registrar and the Admissions Office treat confidential material carefully.
“Anything that has any student identifiable information is put through a confidential recycling program,” Admissions Director Martha Pitts said. “We work diligently to protect students’ right to privacy.”
Pitts said that the University uses Social Security numbers mainly to speed up the matching and processing of information, such as applications, transcripts, SAT scores and financial aid documents, among others.
But there are no measures in place to protect the information a student places on his or her homework, such as their identification number, or ensure the confidentiality of a professor’s class information.
To change their student number from their Social Security number to a University-generated number, students can go to the Office of the Registrar, provide proper identification, and request the number be changed.