Archive for the ‘Michigan’ Category

The Michigan legislature passed SB 1202, Identity Theft Protection Act, which would prohibit the sale or acquisition of phone records, including VoIP, broadband and cellular, without the customer’s permission.

Sec. 5. (1) A person shall not do any of the following:

(a) With intent to defraud or violate the law, use or attempt to use the personal identifying information of another person to do either of the following:

(i) Obtain credit, goods, services, money, property, a vital record, a confidential telephone record, medical records or information, or employment.

The legislation gives a new, broad exception to law enforcement to obtain records without a warrant. Cold comfort is offered to others who may have legitimate need for the records.

(2) A person who violates subsection (1)(b)(i) may assert 1 or more of the following as a defense in a civil action or as an affirmative defense in a criminal prosecution, and has the burden of proof on that defense by a preponderance of the evidence:

(b) That the person acted in otherwise lawful pursuit or enforcement of a person’s legal rights, including an investigation of a crime or an audit, collection, investigation, or transfer of a debt, child or spousal support obligation, tax liability, claim, receivable, account, or interest in a receivable or account.

(c) That the action taken was authorized or required by state or federal law, rule, regulation, or court order or rule.

The Ingham County Recorder of Deeds, Michigan, has announced she is removing images of recorded documents from the Web site. The Lansing State Journal reports that social security numbers will be removed from recorded documents, including tax liens, even though there are few records with SSNs. The move is a purported attempt to curb identity theft, although none has been reported.

The Michigan legislature has revised the Public Records Act to specify that criminal records in which there is not a conviction but an arrest are open to the public, according to this press release from the Michigan State Police.

Additional criminal history information, specifically arrest information pending a conviction, will be available to the public as a result of Public Act 310 of 2005, which establishes a state criminal history record information dissemination law. Previously, Michigan did not have a dissemination law so the state followed federal law which prohibits the release of non-conviction data to non-law enforcement entities.

The criminal records index can be accessed from the State Police site.
[Thanks to BRB for the tip.]