The Red Flag rule represents an important opportunity for the health care sector to protect consumers and patients from the impacts of medical and other forms of identity theft.

Robert Gellman is a privacy and information policy consultant based in Washington, DC. .

Pam Dixon is the executive director of the World Privacy Forum. .

Following is a reproduction of the Guidelines and Supplement to the Red Flag and Address Discrepancy Rules. The rulemakings may be found at Federal Trade Commission et al., Identity Theft Red Flags and Address Discrepancies Under the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act of 2003, 72 Fed. Reg. (Nov. 9, 2007), .

This privacy policy was in effect from Sept. 15, 2009 until Sept. 24, 2013. ———- This privacy policy applies to the World Privacy Forum web site, www.worldprivacyforum.org. This privacy policy may change from time to time in response to new laws, to changes made to the web site, or otherwise. The World Privacy Forum reserves

Financial privacy – Privacy Act — The World Privacy Forum filed comments today urging the U.S. Treasury Department to obtain consumers’ consent before checking their credit reports. Consumers who participate in the government’s Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP) — an Obama administration program created to help consumers renegotiate their mortgages so they can keep their homes — must allow the Federal Government to check their credit reports without first obtaining consent. This procedure sets a negative precedent, and is at odds with consumer expectations of privacy. The Treasury gave itself this power in an obscure set of “Routine Uses” in a Privacy Act notice published along with the proposed system of records for the program. The World Privacy Forum has objected to this, and has filed detailed comments with the Treasury about the lack of consumer consent. The public comment period on this program is open until September 4, 2009.