This was just another day that showed us that the proliferation of identity theft attempts and growth in potential exposures continue unabated:

- A laptop with 100,000 Social Security numbers was stolen earlier this month from The University of California at Berkeley. In case you are wondering if you are affected, “University officials say the stolen computer contained information on most individuals who applied to graduate school between fall 2001 and spring 2004, graduate students who enrolled between fall 1989 and fall 2003, and recipients of doctoral degrees from 1976 through 1999.”

- A self-serving but still valid point-making piece tells us that Instant Messaging, since it’s essentially a P2P network, has many of the same exposures to virus attacks and identity theft attempts that have been noted previously in the popular file-swapping P2Ps. Ignore the bogus claims at the end that VOIP is the answer to all the world’s problems.

It was a day that also gave an inkling that there is finally some serious energy behind attempts to prevent ID theft and help victims:

- The article about the Berkeley heist quotes California Senator Dianne Feinstein: “It clearly demonstrates the need for a comprehensive approach to identity theft in order to give Americans more control over their personal information.”

- Meanwhile in a sign that companies are getting a clue, MetLife Home and Auto, pending regulatory approval, is planning to offer free identity theft help to all of its existing and future homeowners, rental and condo insurance policy holders (apparently it’s not available to life policy customers). It’s the first program of its kind, and is being launched in New York and Florida. So if you live in those two states and are a customer, heads up.

To work through my bankruptcy posts, I would like to learn the following from anyone who might happen to know:

What percentage of charged dollars does a credit-card company’s affinity partner typically get?

An English translation of the question:
If you charge $100 using a co-branded credit card, such as the Ebay MasterCard or the American Airlines Visa, the merchant usually has to pay about 2% (so let’s call it $2) to the credit card issuer. How much of that $2 does the affinity partner (the one that isn’t Visa or MasterCard) typically get? $1? 50 cents?

Getting a handle on this could go a long way towards explaining why certain groups you would expect to be opposed to Bankruptcy Reform are totally missing in action. Attempts to get this information from credit card issuers have been futile thus far (no surprise there).

If you know a general answer, or have a specific answer about a credit-card program you are familiar with, I would appreciate hearing from you at biz@bizzyblog.com.

UPDATE: Without getting anything tied to a specific card program, I have learned from one of the major card issuer’s call centers that affinity partners can get up to 1% of the amounts charged (i.e., up to $1 for every $100 spent on the card). I hope to learn about a specific affinity program or two shortly.

UPDATE 2: I just got the broad outline of a school-related program and feel comfortable that a typical arrangement is anywhere from 0.8%-1.0%. Let’s just say: That’s a lot of moolah. I’ll be commenting about this in the coming days.