At tax time, like most people, you are concerned about the bottom line: Will I get a refund or will I have to pay? Privacy may never enter your mind, but perhaps it should.
When you visit the tax preparer, you may get stacks of papers to sign. Pressed for time, you may sign your name without a close reading. Or, you may just assume that what you tell your accountant will go no further than the IRS.
Submitted electronically by the PRC to: Notice.Comments@irscounsel.treas.gov
Internal Revenue Service
P.O. Box 7604, Room 5203
Ben Franklin Station
Washington, DC 20044
ATTN: CC:PA:LPD:PR (REG 137243-02)
RE: Disclosure and Use of Tax Return Information REG 137243-02 http://www.irs.gov/irb/2006-03_IRB/ar16.html
Submitted by the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse
January 18, 2006
Secretary
Federal Communications Commission
445 12 th St, SW
Washington, D.C. 20554
Submitted electronically: www.regulations.gov
RE: FCC CG Docket No. 05-338
Junk Fax Prevention Act of 2005
To the Secretary and the Commission:
Last month you ordered pizza every night for a week. You placed an anonymous call to Child Protective Services. You checked your voicemail 25 times one day to see if that special person had called.
Most of us assume that our phone records are private. Despite mounting legal battles, information brokers on the Internet continue to offer the name and address connected to a cell phone number, an individual's phone number, even the complete record of outgoing and incoming phone calls.
Submitted by the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse on Dec. 19, 2005
Federal Trade Commission
Office of the Secretary, Room H-159 (Annex H)
600 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20580
Filed electronically: https://secure.commentworks.com/ftcIDTheftSurvey
Filed by FAX with OMB (202) 395-6974
RE: FTC File No. P034303 -- ID Theft Survey
Dear Mr. Secretary:
Submitted: May 24, 2005 to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation for FACTA, Fair Credit Reporting Proposed Rulemaking by the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse.
Robert E. Feldman, Executive Secretary
Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation
550 17 th Street, NW
Washington, D.C. 20429
Submitted by E-Mail: Comments@FDIC.gov
RE: Fair Credit Reporting Medical Information Regulations -- RIN 3064-AC81
Dear Mr. Feldman:
Shelia had been away from the United States for the past 4 years and wanted to sell her house in California. She contacted several real estate agents to discuss listing the house and was informed by them that her house has been rented. Someone had been collecting the rent on her house, faked her signature and had received loans on her property. This same person had also been made a power of attorney, bought a business and accumulated a huge amount of financial burden all in her name.
Disasters bring out the best in people and the worst. These two dynamics intersect when scam-artists create fake charities with fundraising appeals, thereby bilking people out of donations that they meant to give to the victims.
Charity fraud. In the aftermath of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, there will no doubt be the usual fraudsters attempting to cash in on people's heartfelt generosity. Here's how you can avoid becoming a victim of such charlatans.
The PRC advises parents to pay close attention to documents and forms that students bring home from school. Among them is likely to be an opt-out form regarding the disclosure of students' education records.
Starting August 1, 2005, unsolicited offers for credit or insurance that are based on information in your credit report should be easier to spot.