Privacy Law and Policy : Privacy Lawyer & Attorney : Kevin Whitaker Law Firm : Patient Confidentiality, Defamation, Identity Theft : Privacy Law & Policy Blog

The scramble in on as companies seek to comply with the identity theft regulations adopted in Massachusetts and touted as 'the first of their kind in the country' which are scheduled to take effect on March 1, 2010.

The effective date’s announcement followed a report indicating there have been over one million instances of Massachusetts residents’ personal information being exposed in two years. “We hope these regulations will make it harder for information to get into the wrong hands, and lower the number of instances of data being lost or stolen,” said Barbara Anthony, the Undersecretary of the Office of Consumer Affairs and Business Regulation (OCABR).

While M.G.L. c. 93H was passed in 2007, controversy emerged over how to pursue some of the law’s objectives under the regulations. After repeated postponements and revisions—brought upon largely by changes in the economic climate as well as compliance concerns of businesses— the regulations are now set to take effect on March 1st.

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The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court recently reversed four indictments of Matt H. Zubiel for an attempt to disseminate matter harmful to a minor, under M.G. L. c. 272, § 28, and as defined in M.G. L. c. 272, § 31. Each indictment was based on Internet conversations between Zubiel and an undercover police officer on different days.

Deputy Sheriff Melissa Marino, a member of the "high-tech evidence analysis team" in the Plymouth County sheriff's department, conducted undercover investigations of crimes, including child pornography and child enticement. Marino created an undercover screen name, "Melissa QT 1995 and set up a Yahoo profile describing herself as "Meliss Smith" from the South Shore, age thirteen, and in the eighth grade. Her profile invited others to "PM" her (a form of instant messaging) if they wanted to send her a "private message."
 

On February 8, 2006, Zubiel with a screen name of "Ilikesports04," said, "Hi, how are you?" Marino informed Zubiel she was thirteen years old. He indicated he was age twenty-five. Their first online chat lasted forty-two minutes with Zubiel asking Marino for a photograph.  She emailed him photographs of herself when she was thirteen years old. They discussed where each lived and they gave physical descriptions of themselves. Zubiel asked Marino, "[You] ever fool around with boys?" and other questions regarding what she had done with boys, how old the boys were, and additional details about those events.

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