Terms Used In Hawaii Revised Statutes 489P-1

  • consumer reporting agency: means any person who, for monetary fees or dues or on a cooperative nonprofit basis, regularly engages in whole or in part in the practice of assembling or evaluating consumer credit information or other information on consumers for the purpose of furnishing credit reports to third parties, but does not include any governmental agency whose records are maintained primarily for law enforcement or licensing purposes. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 489P-2
  • Security freeze: means a notice placed in a credit report at the request of the consumer or the protected consumer's representative. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 489P-2

The Federal Trade Commission determined that between October 1998 and September 2003, more than twenty-seven million three hundred Americans were victims of identity theft, resulting in billions of dollars of losses to consumers. The purpose of this chapter is to protect Hawaii consumers by allowing consumers to place a security freeze on their credit reports. This security freeze will prohibit a consumer reporting agency from releasing any information to unauthorized parties without the consumer’s express authorization and provide consumers more control over who has access to their credit report. This chapter aims to effectively prevent identity thieves from continuing to secure credit in someone else’s name.