The general assembly finds and declares that:

(a)  Identity theft is a growing menace for consumers in the new economy, as vast quantities of sensitive, personal information has become vulnerable to criminal interception and misuse;

(b)  Identity theft has become a major law enforcement challenge;

(c)  An integral part of many identity thefts involves the interception of personal financial data, the fraudulent acquisition of credit cards or other financial products in another person‘s name;

(d)  Identity theft is an act that violates the privacy of our citizens, ruins their good names and may subject them to restricted access to credit, diminished employment opportunities, and months or years of effort to repair damage to credit histories;

(e)  Social security numbers are frequently used as identification numbers in many computer files, giving access to information an individual may want kept private, making it [is] wise to limit access to an individual’s social security number whenever possible; and

(f)  It is therefore a valid public purpose for the Rhode Island general assembly to ensure that the private financial information and social security numbers of the citizens of the state of Rhode Island are less accessible, in order to mitigate the potential for more identity theft to occur.