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Statement by U. S. Rep. Bobby L. Rush on the Breach of Privacy Information by 77 Million Users of the Sony PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Portable...
[May 01, 2011]

Statement by U. S. Rep. Bobby L. Rush on the Breach of Privacy Information by 77 Million Users of the Sony PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Portable...


(Targeted News Service Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Statement by U. S. Rep. Bobby L. Rush on the Breach of Privacy Information by 77 Million Users of the Sony PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Portable Video Games CHICAGO, April 27 -- Rep. Bobby Rush, D-Ill. (1st CD), issued the following news release: In response to the news announced yesterday by the Sony Corporation that the confidential privacy information of millions of its users of the PlayStation Network, an online game and service used by approximately 77 million consumers worldwide, had been breached by what Sony described as an "illegal intrusion," U. S. Rep. Bobby L. Rush (D-IL) today released the following statement.



"Data security, privacy and sound records management policies and practices are different stripes on the same tiger. If that tiger is toothless or is unfamiliar with its habitat, it isn't a matter of whether but when will consumers' privacy be abused and personal information compromised. I have several concerns surrounding the disturbing news announced by Sony, late yesterday, about what they describe as an "illegal intrusion" they discovered on April 19. The timing between their discovery of the data security breach and their alerting its 77 million users of their PlayStation Network a week later is, itself, disturbing.

"I will soon re-introduce data security legislation in this Congress that substantially resembles H.R. 2221, a bi-partisan bill I introduced in the last Congress that was advanced to the Senate. Violations of consumer privacy is no respecter of party affiliation and, with all that is at stake, I continue to call upon the House Republican leadership to hold legislative hearings, immediately, on privacy and data security legislation. It is my hope that industry and consumer advocates will engage with this Congress so that we can craft a strong, bipartisan bill that prevents these potentially damaging outcomes and reasonably mitigates foreseeable threats against consumers' sensitive, personal and confidential information.


"Sony touts its PlayStation platform's real-time and networking capabilities to consumers. The laws of this country should call, similarly, for consumers to be notified in as close to real-time as possible--not according to Sony time--whenever their sensitive information falls into the hands of intruders, hackers, thieves and information resellers." In the 111th Congress, Rush introduced H.R. 2221, the Data Accountability and Trust Act ("DATA"), a bill that addresses data breaches by requiring "for-profit" entities holding data containing consumers' personal information to have reasonable and appropriate security measures in place to protect that data. H.R. 2221 would also require them to notify consumers, who are U.S. citizens or residents and the Federal Trade Commission when a breach occurs. Rush's bill was advanced to the U. S. Senate in December, 2009.

TNS hc11-110430-MJ88-3365336 StaffFurigay (c) 2011 Targeted News Service

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