List of Identity Theft Laws in US and Canada

The Congressional Research Service in the United States recently published a paper entitled Identity Theft Laws: State Penalties and Remedies and Pending Federal Bills. It is available from the OpenCRS website, a project of the Center for Democracy & Technology that provides citizens access to reports prepared for U.S. Congress members.

"This report provides an overview of state laws on identity theft. It discusses state laws that penalize identity theft, as well as state laws that assist identity theft victims, including those that permit consumers to block unauthorized persons from obtaining their credit information, known as 'security freezes.' The report also includes a survey of state 'credit freeze' statutes. The report concludes with summaries of federal identity theft legislation pending in the 110th Congress".

This is a follow-up to the Library Boy post of April 2, 2007 entitled Working Papers on ID Theft. That post referred to a series of papers prepared by the Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic (CIPPIC) at the University of Ottawa, including ones on anti-ID theft legislation in Canada, the United Kingdom, France and Australia.

Since that post, CIPPIC has published additional working documents on the topic:

• Caselaw on Identity Theft: "This paper presents an inventory and analysis of identity theft caselaw in Canada and the U.S. as of December 2006. It covers criminal, civil, and administrative cases in both countries. For Canada, relevant findings of the Federal Privacy Commissioner are analyzed. For the U.S., decisions of Federal Trade Commission cases are discussed. Briefs of all cases referred to in this Working Paper are included in Appendices (one with Canadian cases; the other with U.S. cases). Most cases involve criminal prosecutions focusing on fraudulent uses of stolen personal information. Sentences tend to be mild, especially when compared with those in the U.S. Identity theft has not figured directly in many civil or administrative cases in Canada. "
• Policy Approaches to Identity Theft: "This paper reviews government and corporate sector initiatives that help to prevent, detect, and mitigate the effects of identity theft. Examples of collaboration and cooperation between various levels of government, between the public and private sectors, and within the international community are canvassed as well. The role of nongovernmental organizations in shaping the policy agenda for identity theft is also discussed, as these organizations play an important part in policy development, through their advocacy, research, and education activities. "
• Identity Theft: Bibliography