Mari Frank Interviews Beth Givens Director of the Privacyrights Clearinghouse

Beth Givens is founder and director of the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse (PRC), a nonprofit advocacy, research, and consumer education program located in San Diego, California. The PRC was established in 1992 with funding from the California Public Utilities Commission's Telecommunications Education Trust. It is an independent program of the Utility Consumers' Action Network, a nonprofit organization that advocates for consumers' interests regarding telecommunications, energy and the Internet. The PRC maintains a complaint/information hotline on informational privacy issues, the only one of its kind in the country. It publishes a series of guides on informational privacy issues. Topics include Internet privacy, wireless communications, credit reporting, identity theft, telemarketing, medical records, workplace privacy, employment screening, unsolicited mail, government records, children's online privacy, among others. These are available at the PRC's web site, www.privacyrights.org. Givens frequently speaks and conducts workshops on the issue of privacy. She has participated in many media interviews including: The News Hour with Jim Lehrer (PBS), CBS Evening News, CNN, 60 Minutes, 48 Hours, Good Morning America, Court TV, NBC Evening News, CBS Weekend News, and major U.S. daily newspapers. She has testified on privacy public policy concerns before the U.S. Senate, the California Legislature, the California Public Utilities Commission, the Federal Trade Commission, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, and the U.S. Comptroller of the Currency. In addition, Givens has been a member of several task forces examining privacy-related public policy issues:: California Office of Privacy Protection Advisory Committee; Truste Wireless Privacy Committee; Justice Management Institute's Electronic Court Records Advisory Committee; Task Force on Criminal Records Identity Theft; California Legislature's Joint Task Force on Personal Information and Privacy; California Judicial Council Subcommittee on Privacy and Access; Internet Policy Committee of the San Diego Public Library; and the Mayor of San Diego's City of the Future Task Force. She has served on the U.S. Census Advisory Committee, California Radio Frequency ID Advisory Committee, and the California REAL ID Task Force,. Many of Givens' speeches and testimony are available on the PRC Web site under "Speeches&Testimony," www.privacyrights.org/ar. Givens was awarded a Pioneer Award in 2002 from the Electronic Frontier Foundations. The Privacy Rights Clearinghouse is a 2000 award recipient from The Foundation for Improvement of Justice for its work in assisting victims of identity theft. Givens is a recipient of the 2000 Privacy International Brandeis Award. Ms. Givens contributed articles on identity theft to two encyclopedias: World Book (2004) and Encyclopedia of Crime and Punishment (2002). She also contributed a chapter to the 2006 book, RFID: Applications, Security and Privacy. She is the author of The Privacy Rights Handbook: How to Take Control of Your Personal Information (Avon Books, 1997). She is co-author of Privacy Piracy (with Mari Frank) : A Guide to Protecting Yourself from Identity Theft. Givens is also co-author and editor of the PRC's fact sheets, on the Web at www.privacyrights.org/fs. Voice: 619-298-3396 Web:www.privacyrights.or