wildercb/PrivacyTextBooks1.2 · Datasets at Hugging Face

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victim’s information to obtain prescriptions.15
The term “medical identity theft” originates from a report by Pam Dixon
of the World Privacy Forum. She concluded her report by stating: “The
victims who have been impacted by medical identity theft have to date been
largely ignored, despite the serious consequences and harms they must face
and deal with.”16 Dixon wrote this report in 2006. Since then, nothing has
improved.
Most victims from medical identity theft suffer significant harm, and few
are completely cured. Not only can medical ID theft create financial harm,
but it can pollute medical records with false information that can jeopardize
a patient’s treatment. Sometimes, the errors can create life-threatening
harm.17 Imagine that you have been injured, and that you are unconscious
and wheeled into the emergency room. Your medical records are riddled
with errors from an identity thief—your blood type is wrong, and your
allergies are incorrectly listed. There are preexisting conditions listed that
you don’t have. There are treatments listed that you never received. There
are drugs listed that you don’t take. These errors could lead to a wrong
treatment that could be lethal.
Medical identity theft often takes much longer to detect than other types
of fraud.18 The longer detection period increases the value of the data to
fraudsters.
CHILDREN’S IDENTITY THEFT
Identity thieves target children because they are less likely to discover the
problem. In a recent example, identity thieves pretended to be teenagers in
Canada to fraudulently claim thousands of dollars in government benefits.19
There are more than one million children whose identities are stolen each
year.20 Kids are deeply wounded from identity theft because they often
don’t find out that it is going on until years later. When teenagers or young
adults start to pay taxes, take out college loans, or get credit cards, they
might discover that a thief has been conducting fraud in their name for
years. Their credit will be ruined, they might owe tens of thousands of
dollars, and they will have great difficulty in obtaining a loan or a credit
card. If children are victims of medical identity theft, the fraud can result in
astronomical health insurance premiums when they obtain their own
coverage.21
Harms of Identity Theft
Identity theft is often brushed aside by police departments as a minor crime,
but identity theft can be far more harmful than physical theft. Identity theft
also has reverberations that can last for years.
COST, STRESS, ANXIETY, AND LOST TIME
Victims of identity theft suffer significant cost, stress, anxiety, and lost time
to repair the damage. Some must sell possessions or borrow money to pay
the expenses. Many must take time off from work or sacrifice their vacation
time to clean up the mess.22
Victims’ credit scores plummet, and they lose time trying to clean up the
pollution to their credit history. Some victims have their credit cards
cancelled; others see their interest rates skyrocket. Victims are often
barraged with calls from collection agencies. Some victims are unable to
rent an apartment or find housing, while others have trouble finding a job.23
Medical identity theft victims can be denied health insurance coverage
because thieves have used up their benefits. Some victims lose their health
insurance entirely.
Cleansing one’s records by clearing up the muck of bad data can be quite
difficult. For example, HIPAA—the law that regulates health data—
provides for a right to “amend” rather than correct one’s records.24 Patients
can have notations about wrong information added to their records, but
healthcare providers often don’t delete incorrect data. The muck remains in
the records.
Identity theft is like contracting a chronic disease that just won’t go
away. Victims will often have to play an endless game of “whack-a-mole”
trying to shut down the fake accounts as quickly as they pop up.25 Around
50 to 60 percent of people surveyed in recent years indicated that their
identity theft issue remained unresolved. And the statistics are getting
worse. In 2013, 51.1 percent reported that the identity theft remained
unresolved; in 2016, the percentage had risen to 61.9 percent. In 2013, 27.5
percent resolved the issue in under six months. Only 16.8 percent resolved
the issue in under six months in 2016.26
More than 75 percent of victims reported being “severely distressed”
about the identity theft.27 People felt angry, fearful, powerless, betrayed,
embarrassed, and frustrated. Many felt anxiety. Many felt vulnerable and
violated.28
COSTS TO ORGANIZATIONS AND TO CONSUMERS
Not only are breaches harmful to people, but they are also very costly and
harmful to organizations. At first blush, some might think: Serves these
organizations right! They don’t protect our data enough, and now they have
to pay for it. Good! They ought to pay!
It certainly is fair for organizations to be held accountable when they
have a breach because they did something wrong or could have done
something better. When organizations are at fault, they ought to feel some
pain from a breach.
But the costs are often too much, don’t compensate people who are
harmed, don’t serve to deter bad conduct, and end up hurting everyone.
Organizations that suffer data breaches aren’t just large, profit-hungry
corporations; they are schools, colleges, hospitals, charities, and small
businesses. The money schools spend on breaches is money lost from
education. Money spent on hospital breaches takes away from expenditures
on healthcare.
In many cases, the costs are passed along to consumers in terms of
higher prices. The organizations are thus not footing much of the bill.
Instead, individuals are doing so, including the very people who are identity
theft victims. Moreover, these costs go primarily towards cleaning up after a
breach; only a portion of the expenditure goes to improving security.
Fines by federal agencies such as the Federal Trade Commission (FTC)
and state attorneys general mostly go into the coffers of the U.S. Treasury to
be spent on whatever whims the government desires. Data breach victims
rarely see much money or other meaningful redress from class action
litigation. Instead, victims just receive endless offers of free credit
monitoring that don’t do much to protect them.
HOW THE LAW FAILS TO PREVENT IDENTITY THEFT
The law attempts to stop identity theft by trying to deter it with punishments

victim’s information to obtain prescriptions.15

The term “medical identity theft” originates from a report by Pam Dixon

of the World Privacy Forum. She concluded her report by stating: “The

victims who have been impacted by medical identity theft have to date been

largely ignored, despite the serious consequences and harms they must face

and deal with.”16 Dixon wrote this report in 2006. Since then, nothing has

improved.

Most victims from medical identity theft suffer significant harm, and few

are completely cured. Not only can medical ID theft create financial harm,

but it can pollute medical records with false information that can jeopardize

a patient’s treatment. Sometimes, the errors can create life-threatening

harm.17 Imagine that you have been injured, and that you are unconscious

and wheeled into the emergency room. Your medical records are riddled

with errors from an identity thief—your blood type is wrong, and your

allergies are incorrectly listed. There are preexisting conditions listed that

you don’t have. There are treatments listed that you never received. There

are drugs listed that you don’t take. These errors could lead to a wrong

treatment that could be lethal.

Medical identity theft often takes much longer to detect than other types

of fraud.18 The longer detection period increases the value of the data to

fraudsters.

CHILDREN’S IDENTITY THEFT

Identity thieves target children because they are less likely to discover the

problem. In a recent example, identity thieves pretended to be teenagers in

Canada to fraudulently claim thousands of dollars in government benefits.19

There are more than one million children whose identities are stolen each

year.20 Kids are deeply wounded from identity theft because they often

don’t find out that it is going on until years later. When teenagers or young

adults start to pay taxes, take out college loans, or get credit cards, they

might discover that a thief has been conducting fraud in their name for

years. Their credit will be ruined, they might owe tens of thousands of

dollars, and they will have great difficulty in obtaining a loan or a credit

card. If children are victims of medical identity theft, the fraud can result in

astronomical health insurance premiums when they obtain their own

coverage.21

Harms of Identity Theft

Identity theft is often brushed aside by police departments as a minor crime,

but identity theft can be far more harmful than physical theft. Identity theft

also has reverberations that can last for years.

COST, STRESS, ANXIETY, AND LOST TIME

Victims of identity theft suffer significant cost, stress, anxiety, and lost time

to repair the damage. Some must sell possessions or borrow money to pay

the expenses. Many must take time off from work or sacrifice their vacation

time to clean up the mess.22

Victims’ credit scores plummet, and they lose time trying to clean up the

pollution to their credit history. Some victims have their credit cards

cancelled; others see their interest rates skyrocket. Victims are often

barraged with calls from collection agencies. Some victims are unable to

rent an apartment or find housing, while others have trouble finding a job.23

Medical identity theft victims can be denied health insurance coverage

because thieves have used up their benefits. Some victims lose their health

insurance entirely.

Cleansing one’s records by clearing up the muck of bad data can be quite

difficult. For example, HIPAA—the law that regulates health data—

provides for a right to “amend” rather than correct one’s records.24 Patients

can have notations about wrong information added to their records, but

healthcare providers often don’t delete incorrect data. The muck remains in

the records.

Identity theft is like contracting a chronic disease that just won’t go

away. Victims will often have to play an endless game of “whack-a-mole”

trying to shut down the fake accounts as quickly as they pop up.25 Around

50 to 60 percent of people surveyed in recent years indicated that their

identity theft issue remained unresolved. And the statistics are getting

worse. In 2013, 51.1 percent reported that the identity theft remained

unresolved; in 2016, the percentage had risen to 61.9 percent. In 2013, 27.5

percent resolved the issue in under six months. Only 16.8 percent resolved

the issue in under six months in 2016.26

More than 75 percent of victims reported being “severely distressed”

about the identity theft.27 People felt angry, fearful, powerless, betrayed,

embarrassed, and frustrated. Many felt anxiety. Many felt vulnerable and

violated.28

COSTS TO ORGANIZATIONS AND TO CONSUMERS

Not only are breaches harmful to people, but they are also very costly and

harmful to organizations. At first blush, some might think: Serves these

organizations right! They don’t protect our data enough, and now they have

to pay for it. Good! They ought to pay!

It certainly is fair for organizations to be held accountable when they

have a breach because they did something wrong or could have done

something better. When organizations are at fault, they ought to feel some

pain from a breach.

But the costs are often too much, don’t compensate people who are

harmed, don’t serve to deter bad conduct, and end up hurting everyone.

Organizations that suffer data breaches aren’t just large, profit-hungry

corporations; they are schools, colleges, hospitals, charities, and small

businesses. The money schools spend on breaches is money lost from

education. Money spent on hospital breaches takes away from expenditures

on healthcare.

In many cases, the costs are passed along to consumers in terms of

higher prices. The organizations are thus not footing much of the bill.

Instead, individuals are doing so, including the very people who are identity

theft victims. Moreover, these costs go primarily towards cleaning up after a

breach; only a portion of the expenditure goes to improving security.

Fines by federal agencies such as the Federal Trade Commission (FTC)

and state attorneys general mostly go into the coffers of the U.S. Treasury to

be spent on whatever whims the government desires. Data breach victims

rarely see much money or other meaningful redress from class action

litigation. Instead, victims just receive endless offers of free credit

monitoring that don’t do much to protect them.

HOW THE LAW FAILS TO PREVENT IDENTITY THEFT

The law attempts to stop identity theft by trying to deter it with punishments