By state Rep. Diana Farrington of Utica

The holiday season has come and gone, but the bevy of transactions that allow your personal information to be stored continues.

In my third year chairing the House Financial Services Committee, I have worked to make sure Michigan consumers are safer in today’s technological age. We often put personal, identifying information into online forms, such as our names, dates of birth, social security numbers, credit card numbers and more. We do so not knowing for sure how many people have their eyes on it or where that information goes after we enter it.

The widely publicized Equifax data breach in 2017 impacted as many as 147 million U.S. consumers. But that’s just one case, and data breaches happen on varying scales all the time.   According to data collected by the Identity Theft Resource Center, there were close to 1,600 documented data breaches recorded in the United States in 2017. The reported total decreased to 1,244 in 2018, but the number of people exposed rose from roughly 179 million people in 2017 to roughly 447 million.

As merchants and firms continue what seems like an endless uphill race to update their technology to combat data breaches, we can and should strengthen our laws to protect consumers. For example, there currently is no specific notification timeframe within state law when a breach occurs and financial, health, government or bank records have been accessed. There is also no requirement to notify the state when a wide-scale breach happens.

Ultimately, this leads to consumers being the last to know that their information has been compromised. That’s not good customer service for people who live and do business in Michigan.

I introduced House Bills 4186-87 to create the Data Breach Notification Act. The plan clearly defines what personal identity information is covered, who is responsible for reporting a breach and the acceptable time in which to do so. Consumers have a right to know when their information is compromised so they can take action to protect their financial interests.

I have been fighting for these reforms ever since, and I look forward to seeing action taken on them in the House in 2020.

I also have worked to update state law to reflect how crimes are committed using today’s technology, specifically in instances where money changes hands. My plan to include cryptocurrency – digital currency such as Bitcoin and other forms – in the definition of money laundering crimes was recently signed into law by the governor.

While it has been around since the early 1990s, the popularity of cryptocurrency has taken off recently due to a surge in online business and its easy-to-use format. Several major merchants across the country now accept digital forms of currency. Cryptocurrency is not officially recognized as a form of money, so loopholes have naturally arisen in outdated laws which specifically define a transfer of money in forms of crime.

Norwegian historian Christian Lous Lange once said: “Technology is a useful servant, but a dangerous master.” Some of these updates to our laws seem relatively small in nature. But in the case of the Equifax breach, the ramifications of not keeping consumers protected to the best of our ability can be massive. That’s the job I’m tasked with as a representative and through my role of committee chair, and I’ll continue these efforts for people in southeast Michigan and across the state heading into the new year.

Rep. Diana Farrington, of Utica, is in her second term in the Michigan House serving residents in the 30th District, which includes the city of Utica and parts of Sterling Heights and Shelby Charter Township.