An association of public and private agencies affiliated to promote consumer interests: The Massachusetts Consumers' Coalition (MCC) was established in 1976 by representatives of local, state & federal consumer agencies, consumer advocacy organizations & others who were concerned with protecting consumers and ensuring fairness in the marketplace. The purpose of the Coalition is fourfold: - to increase awareness of consumer issues and consumers' rights - to share information about consumer problems and refer trends involving unfair or deceptive practices to the appropriate authorities - to enhance the training of consumer protection professionals - to promote legislation that strengthens consumer rights and to oppose measures that would be detrimental to consumers ** Breaking Consumer News ** ~> WARNING TO MASSACHUSETTS CONSUMERS: BIG PHONE COMPANIES PUSHING MORE THAN $150 MILLION IN HIGHER LONG-DISTANCE TAXES FOR STATE -> Read more <- Data Brokers Gone Wild! The MCC is appalled with the recent breaches of security at two major data broker/data mining companies: ChoicePoint and LexisNexis. These companies have extensive information files on virtually all Americans and apparently are not very selective as to what scam artists can access the files for a modest price. There is a strong effort under way to pass some federal legislation of these data brokers to better protect consumers from identity theft. The MCC encourages all consumers to learn more about their privacy rights and to limit their personal information from spreading beyond what is absolutely necessary. It is also important to find out what data has been collected about you and if it is accurate! Please look at these links to learn how to slow the spread of your personal information. Protect your Personal Information ->'Phone (don't click) for your free credit report' article by Bill Burt posted May 2 2005 on Bankrate.com.