Friday, January 16, 2009

Business execs ask for more time for Mass. data security rules

By Mass High Tech staff

A coalition of business leaders is asking the Patrick Administration to delay by two years its planned May 1 start date for new regulations designed to protect Massachusetts residents against identity theft, State House News Service reported late yesterday.

The coalition also asked that the planned set of rules be rewritten, saying they are unworkable and will hurt jobs. The current set of rules would require a company to totally encrypt all sensitive data relating to Massachusetts residents, regardless of where the company does business. If enacted as planned, it will be the strongest set of such rules in any state of the country.

The original start date of Jan. 1 was pushed back to May in November after the regional business community expressed concerns over the cost of implementation.

Regulations currently on the table go beyond the intent of the state’s identity theft law and “set a perilous course for already strained individuals, families, businesses and state agencies that depend upon the success and growth of the Massachusetts economy,” the business groups wrote in a Jan. 15 letter to Patrick administration officials, State House News reported.  

The letter was signed by groups like the Mass. Business Roundtable, the Mass. Package Store Association and the Mass. Hospital Associations and companies like Google Inc., Comcast Corp., CitiGroup Inc., AOL LLC, Microsoft Corp., The Gap, Verizon Communications Inc. and Wal-Mart Stores Inc.

The rules are up for a public hearing today at 2 p.m.