We have a right to information on data security breaches

[Commentary] California state Sen. Joe Simitian (D-Palo Alto) has sponsored a bill that would tighten California's existing breach-notification rules to require more detailed disclosure of privacy violations.

The legislation, SB 24, passed the Senate in April and is now under consideration in the Assembly. It's hard to see why anyone would oppose the bill. More than 530 million consumer accounts have been compromised in 2,520 known data breaches since 2005, according to the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, an advocacy group. The latest breach came to light Thursday when Citigroup said the names, account numbers and email addresses of as many as 200,000 bank customers were accessed by hackers who broke into Citi's online account site. The Citi breach was discovered by the company in early May. Citi has declined to say why it took weeks to notify customers of the incident. "There's nothing more disconcerting than getting a notice that says only, 'Hi, we had a breach and you were affected,'" Sen Simitian said. "Ignorance is not bliss. What you don't know can hurt you."