THE NEW IDENTITY-THEFT LAW, P.2

Once a transaction is complete, says Kirschenbaum, "we no longer retain a paper copy of the application. We make an electronic copy that is stored in a secured location where you have to have the proper security codes in order to get access. No applications are placed in a file in a general office environment."

What of encryption? There's no specific, legally mandated standard yet. As for properly disposing of electronic information, "New York State," says Monahan, "is setting up a program of approved vendors of information services — IT professionals — who will be approved by the state government to go in and destroy personal information from databases."

Dunleavy, whom Chase reimbursed for her stolen funds, is a financial-industry professional with smart suggestions of her own.

"Keep information separate," she suggests. "Don't have it all in one place. [An applicant's] previous address can be kept separate from things that can be used as a security question, such as a mother's maiden name. And you should know the names of whoever has your package of personal information – co-op boards generally don't tell you who's looking at it, and so I had to go to the managing agent in order to get the names so that I could give them to the investigators. It's a little scary."

The whole issue, of course, goes beyond simply setting board policy. It means rethinking a board's mindset. "A friend of mine is shopping for a co-op," says Dunleavy, "and people are calling her difficult because she's not supplying her social security number everywhere they ask. People shouldn't be made to feel bad about not making all this information available to everyone who asks – not everybody needs it. I think boards aren't used to anything outside the norm, and so they think people with legitimate privacy concerns are being difficult."

That may puncture some boards' egos. But when it comes to Social Security numbers, you can't leak what you don't know — and given the potential fines now in place, that's less a matter of social security than it is of fiscal security.

Adapted from Habitat May 2008. To get the print magazine, visit our Subscription Page >>

Art by Danny Hellman