[Federal Register Volume 73, Number 127 (Tuesday, July 1, 2008)]
[Notices]
[Pages 37457-37458]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: E8-14866]
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FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION
Agency Information Collection Activities; Proposed Collection;
Comment Request
AGENCY: Federal Trade Commission (``FTC'' or ``Commission'').
ACTION: Notice.
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SUMMARY: The FTC intends to conduct consumer survey research to advance
its understanding of the experiences of consumers who interact with
consumer reporting agencies following an incident of identity theft.
The results of this research will inform and guide the FTC's future
enforcement and education efforts. Before gathering information, the
FTC is seeking public comments on its proposed consumer research.
Comments will be considered before the FTC submits a request for Office
of Management and Budget (``OMB'') review under the Paperwork Reduction
Act (``PRA'').
DATES: Comments must be filed by September 2, 2008.
ADDRESSES: Interested parties are invited to submit written comments.
Comments should refer to ``Consumer Experiences with CRAs Research: FTC
File No. P065405,'' to facilitate the organization of comments. A
comment filed in paper form should include this reference both in the
text and on the envelope and should be mailed or delivered to the
following address: Federal Trade Commission, Room H-135 (Annex J), 600
Pennsylvania Ave., N.W., Washington, D.C. 20580. Because paper mail in
the Washington area and at the FTC is subject to delay, please consider
submitting your comments in electronic form, as prescribed below. If,
however, the comment contains any material for which confidential
treatment is requested, it must be filed in paper form, and the first
page of the document must be clearly labeled ``Confidential.''\1\
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\1\ Commission Rule 4.2(d), 16 CFR 4.2(d). The comment must be
accompanied by an explicit request for confidential treatment,
including the factual and legal basis for the request, and must
identify the specific portions of the comment to be withheld from
the public record. The request will be granted or denied by the
Commission's General Counsel, consistent with applicable law and the
public interest. See Commission Rule 4.9(c), 16 CFR 4.9(c).
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Comments filed in electronic form should be submitted by following
the instructions on the web-based form at: (https://secure.commentworks.com/ftc-factasurvey). To ensure that the Commission
considers an electronic comment, you must file it on the web-based form
at the (https://secure.commentworks.com/ftc-factasurvey) weblink. If
this notice appears at (www.regulations.gov), you may also file an
electronic comment through that website. The Commission will consider
all comments that regulations.gov forwards to it.
The FTC Act and other laws the Commission administers permit the
collection of public comments to consider and use in this proceeding as
appropriate. All timely and responsive public comments will be
considered by the Commission and will be available to the public on the
FTC website, to the extent practicable, at www.ftc.gov. As a matter of
discretion, the FTC makes every effort to remove home contact
information for individuals from the public comments it receives before
placing those comments on the FTC website. More information, including
routine uses permitted by the Privacy Act, may be found in the FTC's
privacy policy at (http://www.ftc.gov/ftc/privacy.htm).
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Requests for additional information
should be addressed to Pavneet Singh or Anthony Rodriguez, Attorneys,
Division of Privacy and Identity Protection, Bureau of Consumer
Protection, Federal Trade Commission, 600 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W.,
Mail Stop NJ-3158, Washington, DC 20580, (202) 326-2252.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Under the PRA, 44 U.S.C. 3501-3521, federal
agencies must obtain approval from OMB for each collection of
information they conduct or sponsor. ``Collection of information''
means agency requests or requirements that members of the public submit
reports, keep records, or provide information to a third party. 44
U.S.C. 3502(3); 5 CFR 1320.3(c). As required by section 3506(c)(2)(A)
of the PRA, the FTC is providing this opportunity for public comment
before requesting that
[[Page 37458]]
OMB provide paperwork clearance for the information collection noted
herein.
The FTC invites comments on: (1) whether the proposed collections
of information are necessary for the proper performance of the
functions of the agency, including whether the information has
practical utility; (2) the accuracy of the agency's estimate of the
burden of the proposed collections of information; (3) ways to enhance
the quality, utility, and clarity of the information to be collected;
and (4) ways to minimize the burden of the collections of information
on those who are to respond, including through the use of appropriate
automated, electronic, mechanical, or other technological collection
techniques or other forms of information technology, e.g., permitting
electronic submission of responses.
All comments should be filed as prescribed in the ADDRESSES section
above, and must be received on or before September 2, 2008.
1. Description of the collection of information and proposed use
The Fair Credit Reporting Act (``FCRA'') provides identity theft
victims with certain rights, such as the ability to place fraud alerts
on their credit files, designed to assist them in avoiding or
mitigating the harms they suffer as a result of the crime.
The Commission intends to use consumer survey research to advance
its understanding of the experiences of identity theft victims who
interact with consumer reporting agencies (CRAs) and who seek to avail
themselves of their FCRA remedies. The consumer research will include
focus group interviews of 30 consumers, to be followed by a pretesting
phase consisting of phone interviews of another 30 consumers, and then
mail surveys sent to individual consumers. The Commission seeks
information from consumers who have been victims of identity theft and
who have contacted one or more of the three nationwide CRAs for
assistance. The information from consumers will be collected on a
voluntary basis and will be maintained anonymously. The FTC staff will
identify consumers to be contacted for each phase of the research from
a random selection of consumers who have communicated with the FTC's
Identity Theft Data Clearinghouse database between January 1, 2008 and
May 30, 2008. Staff is seeking approximately 1,000 returned surveys
because that input would enable it to project the results from the
sample to the population from which the sample was drawn with a maximum
error rate of 3%. Assuming a response rate of about 25% - 30%, this
would require staff to mail the survey to approximately 3,000 - 4,000
individuals.
Questions to identity theft victims in the research will address
several topics, including but not limited to: victim experiences when
they contacted one or more CRAs and whether they received the required
notice of rights from CRAs; their access to free credit reports; and
their ability to place fraud alerts on their files, dispute inaccurate
information, and block information due to identity theft. The results
of the focus groups and mail surveys will assist the FTC in assessing
the experiences of identity theft victims when they interact with CRAs.
This assessment will help to inform and guide the FTC's future efforts
to enforce provisions of the FCRA and to educate consumers and the
consumer reporting industry of their rights and obligations under the
FCRA.
2. Estimated hours burden
The FTC staff intends to include a total of 30 consumers divided
between three separate focus groups, consisting of 10 per group, and
estimates that each consumer will take approximately one hour to
participate in the focus groups. Thus, the estimated annual burden
imposed by the focus groups will be approximately 30 hours. The staff
estimates that respondents to the mail survey will require, on average,
approximately 8 minutes to answer the survey (based on anticipated
variations among consumers when they interacted with CRAs). The staff
will pretest the survey through phone interviews of approximately 30
respondents to ensure that all questions are easily understood. The
pretest will take approximately 4 hours as a whole (30 respondents x 8
minutes each). For the full survey, the staff intends to mail 3,000-
4,000 surveys and anticipates receiving a response rate as high as 30%
of the consumer recipients (i.e., 900 - 1,200 responses). Assuming
1,200 consumers respond to the survey, the staff further estimates the
final survey will require approximately 160 hours to complete (1,200
respondents x 8 minutes each). Thus, cumulative burden hours for the
clearance would total 194 hours.
3. Estimated cost burden
The cost per respondent should be negligible. Participation is
voluntary and will not require start-up, capital, or labor expenditures
by respondents.
William Blumenthal
General Counsel
[FR Doc. E8-14866 Filed 6-30-08: 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6750-01-S