Doyle declares Data Privacy Day in Wisconsin

The National Association of Attorneys General also recognized Data Privacy Day, and Wisconsin's Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen issued a press release early this week with an identity theft education and protection theme. In Canada, where data privacy laws are broader and more universal compared to the U.S., Canadian Mayors recognized the special day in their communities. Locally, today the the Greater Madison Chamber of Commerce (GMCC) announced that it is recognizing Data Privacy Day by launching a four-part series on privacy and information security to help educate its members on the importance of the subject. The series debuts in the February issue of the GMCC Business Beat (Part I is available online now).

 

Data Privacy Day brings awareness to a subject that many consumers, businesses, government agencies, schools, non-profits and other organizations don't think twice about. Today is an opportunity to educate children, teens, adults and employees on a wide variety of privacy-related subjects including privacy rights, privacy practices, privacy compliance and several allied topics including identity theft, national security, social networking, information security, data destruction and data transfers.

 

A special focus of the awareness education surrounding International Data Privacy Day is on children andteen use of social networking and related Web 2.0 applications such as photo and video sharing as well as text messaging and sharing of personal and photographic information through the wide variety of digital devices that young people have on hand. (See National Data Privacy Day—teen social networking and each of the short educational videos cited in the article). Many adults and employees can also learn from the basic principles of safe social networking.

 

In the Governor's Proclamation, Doyle cited several reasons for recognizing Data Privacy Day in Wisconsin. The pervasive use of technologies in our daily life gives rise to risks with respect to the personal information we share. Both consumers and employees must protect the personal information they handle.

 

Many businesses and employees are unaware of data protection and privacy laws according to Doyle, as well as the practices to protect privacy and personal information. Wisconsin has over 25 privacy related laws. The Governor says that continuous consideration as to the ways personal information is collected, used, stored and managed will contribute to protection of personal information.

 

The Governor says that government officials from Wisconsin, privacy professionals, academic communities, legal scholars, educators, representatives of businesses and organizations and others will be working together today to further the discussion about data privacy and protection. Doyle says that the recognition of "Data Privacy Day” will encourage more Wisconsin citizens to learn of data privacy and take steps to protect their personal information.

 

Doyle created the Wisconsin Office of Privacy Protection (OPP) in March of 2006. The office is located within the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade & Consumer Protection in 2006. This agency works to educate and protect Wisconsin citizens from threats to the privacy of their personal information.

 

Where is Wisconsin with respect to basic privacy protection?

 

Although identity theft reports from Wisconsin consumers are relatively low (3,152 cases in 2008), the OPP estimates that over 100,000 cases of identity theft in Wisconsin go unreported each year. This suggests that consumers lack the understanding as to what identity theft is and how it should be reported. Wisconsin has a statute that requires law enforcement agencies to take a police report on identity theft incidents, so no identity theft incident should go unreported.

 

Comparing 2008 to 2007 identity theft increased 29% in Wisconsin compared to a national average increase of 21%. More alarming is that certain types of identity theft are rapidly increasing in Wisconsin. Employment fraud, involving the use of stolen Social Security numbers to obtain employment, increased 25%. The use of fraudulent documents such as fake Social Security Cards and the use of such documents to obtain government benefits such as health insurance, unemployment benefits, public assistance and tax refunds increased over 100% in Wisconsin.

 

Wisconsin is the only one of neighboring states (Minnesota, Illinois, Indiana and Iowa) that has not passed a law prohibiting counties from allowing Social Security numbers and other sensitive personal information to be accessed by anyone through certain public records maintained by counties. An investigative report revealed that Wisconsin cites, counties and state government have done little to prevent "just anybody" from accessing our personal information.

 

Data Privacy Day is an opportune time for government agencies and businesses to consider how they handle the sensitive information that consumers, constituents and employees entrust with them.