New York, NY – Albany lawmakers are taking a stand for consumers who have been impacted by the unprecedented Equifax data breach by introducing new legislation that will establish requirements for credit reporting agencies (CRAs) to protect consumers in the instance of a data breach. Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz (D-Bronx), Assemblyman David Buchwald (D-Westchester), and State Senator David Carlucci (D-Rockland) gathered on the steps of New York City Hall to discuss their bills that have now officially been introduced.

One bill, sponsored by State Senator Carlucci and Assemblyman Dinowitz, would require that a CRA provide free lifetime identity theft protection monitoring and mitigation services for the lifetime of their consumer credit report after any data breach that involves social security numbers. Furthermore, the bill would also prohibit fees to freeze and unfreeze a consumer credit report that has been impacted by the breach for the lifetime of that report.

Assemblyman Buchwald’s bill (A.8672, sponsored in the Senate by State Senator Rich Funke (R,C,I-Fairport) requires the credit reporting agency experiencing a data breach to ensure that consumers do not face any costs for freezing and unfreezing credit reports, at all credit bureaus, for a period of five years. The legislation thereby strengthens consumer protections by ensuring that individuals do not bear the cost of the many security freeze transactions, across all CRAs that they are likely to undertake in the wake of the Equifax data breach.

Additional legislation introduced by Assemblymember Linda Rosenthal (D,WF-Manhattan), with Senator Marty Golden (R-Brooklyn), would protect New Yorkers by changing the law to allow them to check their credit report for free at any time as often as they want to do so. Federal law currently allows consumers access to their detailed credit report for free once a year. With millions of names, Social Security numbers, dates of birth, addresses and drivers’ license numbers exposed for hackers and wrongdoers to exploit, it is crucial that New Yorkers have additional protections to monitor for any unauthorized changes to their report. With this vital protection, New Yorkers will be empowered to take immediate action to protect themselves and their identity in the event that fraudulent activity occurs.

Credit reporting agencies, which have already been under recent public scrutiny about inaccurate file keeping and the difficulty consumers have had to correct these files, hold significant influence over the financial abilities of Americans to borrow money. While Equifax has agreed to waive fees for security freezes for a short time period and offered 12 months of identity theft protection services at no charge, this is insufficient and does not fully rectify the damage that has been done in this data breach. There has been no indication that Experian or TransUnion (the other two main CRAs) is planning to waive their fees for a credit freeze with their specific agency, despite that money lenders rely on a combination of all three CRAs to assess the viability of a consumer’s credit reliability.

Assemblyman Dinowitz said: “People’s credit rating is no trivial matter. For Equifax to say they will protect affected consumers for only 12 months is ridiculous. What is stopping the crooks who stole this information from just waiting 366 days instead of 365 before using it? Furthermore, in what world does it make sense to reward Equifax for their negligence by allowing them to collect fees from innocent consumers whose personal information was stolen? This bill represents the absolute bare minimum of responsibility that consumers should expect from these agencies.”

State Senator David Carlucci said: "Equifax has put Americans at risk; we must act now to protect New Yorker's from the devastating consequences of identity theft."

"Consumers should not bear the cost of Equifax's lax security or anytime a credit bureau doesn't protect individual sensitive data," said State Assemblyman David Buchwald. "Credit bureaus should not be allowed to profit from having exposed consumers to identity theft. I think it is wholly appropriate to require Equifax and any similar company experiencing a data breach to pay for all credit freezes and unfreezes over at least the following five years. We can empower New Yorkers to defend themselves without them having to pay the fees currently imposed."

“Information is power, and the legislation will make vital information available to consumers when they want at no cost to them. Consumers should not have to pay for the peace of mind that comes along with knowing they have not been a victim of identity theft as a result of the negligence of a credit reporting bureau,” said Assemblymember Linda B. Rosenthal. “The Equifax breach exposed a critical vulnerability in our personal identification security, and consumers must be armed with every available tool to protect their identity and their financial future.”

“People whose personal information has been compromised in a data breach like the recent Equifax situation have already been victimized once-the last thing we should do is allow them to also fall victim to a fee when they need to freeze their credit report. I’m proud to stand with Assemblyman Buchwald in supporting legislation that will prohibit any fees being collected for freezing credit reports after a data breech has occurred. It’s not fair to the consumer for companies to increase their bottom line at a customer’s expense after a data breach. We should do everything we can to help New Yorkers protect their credit scores,” said Senator Rich Funke.

"It’s critical that we protect New York consumers from credit breaches when credit bureaus are hacked. Today's effort represents one step forward to ensure the safety and well-being of our investments and personal data" said Assistant Speaker Felix W. Ortiz (D-Brooklyn).

“A credit bureau’s failure to safeguard the personal information of consumers is an outrageous act of neglect, stupidity and probably greed. What Equifax did is as inexcusable as a bank leaving its vault open and then saying ‘oops’ to clients whose money gets stolen. This is a safety-net bill that will mandate protection for consumers who have been violated by corporate wrongdoing, so they don’t have to worry for the rest of their lives about identity theft. I commend Assemblymember Jeffrey Dinowitz for authoring this vital consumer protection,” said Assemblymember Aravella Simotas (D-Queens).

“After massive Equifax breach, I stand with my colleagues to support enhanced consumer protections against breaches of Credit Reporting Agencies. Personal information of millions of people was put in jeopardy, and we as lawmakers have the duty to safeguard people’s privacy, identity and other personal information. As the Chair of the Subcommittee on Consumer Fraud Protection, I am committed to further investigating ways we can improve how we prevent, identify and handle consumer fraud cases,” said Assembly Member Seawright (D-Manhattan).

Assembly Member Jo Anne Simon (D-Brooklyn) said, “The Equifax data breach could affect anyone with a credit card, including over 8 million New Yorkers. Protection from future data breeches is crucial. I am proud to cosponsor legislation that will prohibit charging fees for the implementation and temporary lifting of “security freezes” on consumer credit reports that are compromised during a breach, and provide credit monitoring services. I want to thank Assemblymember Jeffrey Dinowitz, State Senator David Carlucci, and Assemblymember David Buchwald for their leadership on this important issue.”