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An Act To Protect Citizens from Identity Theft through Restriction of the Disclosure of Confidential Information
Be it enacted by the People of the State of Maine as follows:
Sec. 1. 10 MRSA §1272-B,  as enacted by PL 2003, c. 512, §1, is amended to read:
§ 1272-B. Refusal to provide social security number; use as customer identification
 
1. No denial of goods or services.   Except as otherwise provided in federal or state law, a person, corporation or other entity may not deny goods or services to an individual because the individual refuses to provide a social security number.
 
1-A.  Use as customer identification; prohibition.     A business operating in this State that has received a person’s social security number in order to complete an application for credit may not use the number as a form of customer identification and must restrict access to the social security number to the business’s credit department.
 
2. Exemptions.   This section does not apply to:
 
A.  A person, corporation or other entity requesting disclosure of the social security number to obtain a consumer report for any purpose permitted under the Fair Credit Reporting Act or the United States Fair Credit Reporting Act;
 
B.  A supervised lender as defined in Title 9-A, section 1-301;
 
C.  A supervised financial organization as defined in Title 9-A, section 1-301;
 
D.  An affiliate or subsidiary of a supervised lender as defined in Title 9-A, section 1-301 or of a supervised financial organization as defined in Title 9-A, section 1-301;
 
E.  A person, corporation or other entity that provides goods or services to the individual on behalf of or in conjunction with a supervised financial organization as defined in Title 9-A, section 1-301;
 
F.  A person, corporation or other entity engaged in the business of insurance and all acts necessary or incidental to that business including insurance applications, enrollment, coverage and claims;
 
G.  A person, corporation or other entity if the social security number is used in conjunction with the provision of and billing for health care or pharmaceutical-related services, including the issuance of identification cards and account numbers for users of health care or pharmaceutical-related services;
 
H.  A person, corporation or other entity if the social security number is used in conjunction with a background check of the individual conducted by a landlord, lessor, employer or volunteer service organization; or
 
I.  A person, corporation or other entity if the social security number is necessary to verify the identity of the individual to effect, administer or enforce a specific transaction requested or authorized by the individual or to prevent fraud.
 
SUMMARY
This bill prohibits a business operating in this State that has received a person's social security number in order to complete an application for credit from using the number as a form of customer identification and requires the business to restrict access to the social security number to the business's credit department.