Piling It On: Businesses' responsibility for record security

• The Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act of 1999 set out a Safeguards Rule for financial institutions requiring them to ensure the security and confidentiality of customer records and information.

• FACTA, the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act, requires employers that have obtained background checks on employees or potential employees to retain that information confidentially and dispose of it in a specific manner. FACTA went into effect in June 2005. Domestic safety concerns since Sept. 11, 2001, and high-profile crimes by sexual predators have caused the number of background checks to explode in the last six years.

• HIPAA, ort he Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, sets out specific guidelines for gathering, accessing, storing and destroying patient information. Failure to protect this information can result in civil fines of $100 per patient compromised, up to $25,000 a year. Criminal penalties for those who illegally obtain personal medical information range as high as $250,000 and 5 years in prison.