[§489P-1]  Purpose.  The Federal Trade
Commission recently determined that between October 1998, and September 2003,
more than twenty-seven million three hundred Americans have been victims of
identity theft, resulting in billions of dollars of losses to consumers.  The
purpose of this chapter is to protect Hawaii consumers who are victims of
identity theft by allowing them 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 an identity theft victim's name. [L 2006, c
138, pt of §1]