Government is true risk in ID theft

Mar. 30, 2006 12:00 AM

The devil is always in the details. Yet, on Monday, The Republic advocated for House Bill 2351, a bill that, among other things, mandated small businesses to shred just about every possible piece of paper that came across their desk whether the information was sensitive or not ("Defend your credit with new safeguards," Editorial).

HB 2351 lacks a huge component to make a bill of this nature successful: government.

Most people may not recognize that government receives, shares and discards the most sensitive information about each and every one of us. It has our Social Security number, bank account numbers, birth date, mother's maiden name and more.

Yet, when all is said and done, government is not held to the same standard as small business. Just ask a few victims of the government's lackadaisical approach to handling records.

The last thing any business would want is to be complicit in the theft of someone's identity through negligence.

However, I can see why government doesn't want to be held to the same standards as small business. After all, we are "repeat customers" whether we like it or not.

Michelle Bolton Phoenix, Arizona

The writer is state director of the National Federation of Independent Business.