Pols push for consumer protections

Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz sparred with a retail industry representative at a public hearing related to his bill to increase data protection for consumers on Nov. 14.

The legislation aims to require businesses that collect, use or store consumers’ personal information to improve their information security programs. Measures include designating employees to maintain security programs and overseeing third-party service providers with greater scrutiny.

Mr. Dinowitz said he proposed the bill in light of high-profile breaches of consumer information at Target and other retailers in recent months.

However, the president and CEO of the Retail Council of New York State suggested businesses are already trying as hard as they can to protect consumer data and that legislation to increase protections can quickly become dated.

“The standard is changing all the time because that technology that the criminals are using to try to breach our systems is always changing,” Ted Potrikus told Mr. Dinowitz and two other members of the Assembly’s Consumer Affairs and Protection Committee, which the local assemblyman chairs.

“This and any other legislation like this is only as current as the systems we have and the systems that we have, in our view, are state of the art,” Mr. Potrikus added.

Mr. Dinowitz went on to ask questions to learn more about current data protection protocol and options.

But after the hearing, he remarked, “No one wants legislation to tell them what to do.”

“I’m sure they’re doing plenty,” he said of the retail council. “That doesn’t mean that we can’t do more or that we can’t have procedures in place to make sure everybody does that.”

Throughout the session at the Assemby’s Hearing Room near City Hall, Mr. Dinowitz and Assemblymen Karim Camara and Michael Simanowitz paused to wonder at the ways technology has transformed shopping — and how hackers threaten new practices.

“It sounds like war,” Mr. Dinowitz said after Mr. Potrikus recounted hackers’ round-the-clock efforts to steal credit card information and other data.

“It is war — cyber war,” Mr. Potrikus replied.