Fears of ID theft from signing petitions completely false
Media Contacts
CALPIRG
Sacramento, CA—Radio ads claiming that individuals who sign petitions place themselves at risk for identity theft are completely wrong. Consumers have nothing to fear from participating in the democratic process.
“It’s outrageous that someone would disguise dirty politics as consumer protection. There is as much risk of identity theft involved in signing a petition as there is in being listed in the phone book,” said Pedro Morillas Legislative Director for the California Public Interest Research Group.
Californians should be confident that as long as they are only giving their name and address along with a signature to a petition gatherer they are not increasing their risk of identity theft. The radio ads claiming otherwise are nothing more than politics masquerading as consumer protection.
“Social security numbers are the keys to identity theft. And obviously those are not collected by petition gatherers. The threat claimed in these ads is totally false,” according to Beth Givens, director of the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse.
CALPIRG and the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse are both consumer protection organizations that have done extensive work to protect consumers from identity theft. For more information on identity theft please visit either www.privacyrights.org or www.calpirg.org.
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The California Public Interest Research Group (CALPIRG) is a result-oriented public interest group that protects consumers, encourages a fair sustainable economy, and fosters responsive democratic governance.
