Globe breach proves need for law, legislator says

Several Beacon Hill lawmakers yesterday cited the unintentional disclosure of customer financial data by The Boston Globe and Worcester Telegram & Gazette to renew their push for stronger consumer protections from identity theft.

''The Globe and T&G's security breach of customer financial information is impermissible," said Senator Jarrett T. Barrios, a Cambridge Democrat. ''However, their response has been laudable and indeed proof that legislation is needed to protect all consumers from security breaches of this kind."

Barrios is cosponsoring a measure that would force businesses to make prompt and mandatory disclosures when customers' financial or medical information has been lost or stolen.

Meanwhile, a call center established by the newspapers to handle subscribers' calls had fielded about 37,000 calls since it was set up Tuesday afternoon, said a Globe spokesman, Alfred S. Larkin Jr.

He said the newspapers have received reports from three customers of unauthorized use of their credit cards. ''All said they have cancelled their cards," he said.

Larkin also said the Globe met yesterday with officials of the Massachusetts attorney general's office, which is reviewing possible violations of the state's consumer protection law.

Larkin said the Globe expects to offer affected subscribers a credit monitoring service to track and identify unusual financial activity and notify the customers, at no cost for a year. The company expects to mail out details within a few days.

Less than 48 hours after learning that credit card and bank card numbers of more than 200,000 subscribers were distributed with bundles of T&G newspapers on Sunday, the newspapers informed the public. The Globe posted a story on Boston.com on Tuesday. The paper then ran a Page One story about the incident Wednesday, and Globe publisher Richard H. Gilman apologized in open full-page letters in the paper.

Barrios noted the Globe's actions contrast with instances where companies waited much longer to disclose problems.

The Globe's actions didn't satisfy subscriber Peggy Mitchell of Weymouth. She called the Massachusetts Public Interest Research Group, which helped Barrios and his cosponsor draft an identity-theft bill they filed just over a year ago. With her permission, a MassPIRG official gave her phone number to a Globe reporter.

Concerned her personal information is vulnerable to identity thieves, she said she took time off from work to cancel her credit cards and other accounts.

The Globe does ''not care about consumers," she said, adding, ''I couldn't be angrier."

Larkin said, ''We are doing everything we possibly can."

Representative Vincent A. Pedone, a Worcester Democrat and House chairman of the Joint Committee on Consumer Protection and Professional Licensure, said the committee has several identity theft bills before it. The plan is to draft a bill that incorporates the best elements of all and take committee action within a few weeks, he said.

The Massachusetts Bankers Association has concerns. It prefers Congress to act so standards are uniform nationwide, said senior vice president David Floreen.

Chris Reidy can be reached at reidy@globe.com.