A House Subcommittee began a review of the need for data breach legislation today. The Subcommittee held a hearing to determine whether there should be a federal law to require companies to report when a breach of personal identifying information occurs.
The House Subcommittee on Commerce, Manufacturing and Trade heard from several witnesses to discuss whether a federal law should replace or supplement the laws on the books of 46 states. Because of the conflicting state laws some companies prefer a federal statute which would preempt the various state statutes.
NCISS does not oppose legislation to require firms to report when serious data breaches occur. However, we remain concerned about possible extraneous provisions or amendments which could have a serious effect on private investigators. One such issue was raised by the top Democrat on the Subcommittee, Janet Schakowsky when she suggested that data brokers be regulated. In previous data breach legislation there was a provision to regulate data brokers and deny them the right to use "pretexting" to obtain personal information. The definition in that bill was broad and could have been interpreted to include private investigators.
Chairman Lee Terry (R-NE) did not indicate whether he favored regulation of data brokers.
The subcommittee at this time did not review a specific bill. NCISS will be following this issue very closely in both the House and Senate and will act to protect the interests of private investigators.
Here is a list of today's witnesses:
Panel I:
Dan Liutikas
Debbie Matties
Jeff Greene
Kevin Richards
Andrea M. Matwyshyn
David Thaw
Larry Sabbath
