|
You’ve probably been receiving privacy
notices from banks and other financial companies. These notices
explain:
- What personal financial information the
company collects
- Whether the company intends to share
your personal financial information with other companies
- What you can do, if the company intends
to share your personal financial information, to limit some
of that sharing
- How the company protects your personal
financial information.
Companies
that May Send Privacy Notices
|
Financial companies share information for
many reasons: to offer you more services, to introduce new
products, and to profit from the information they have about
you. If you like to know about other products and services, you
may want your financial company to share your personal financial
information; in this case, you don’t need to respond to the
privacy notice. If you prefer to limit the promotions you
receive or do not want marketers and others to have your
personal financial information, you must take some important
steps.
First, it is important to read these
privacy notices. They explain how the company handles and shares
your personal financial information. Keep in mind that not all
privacy notices are the same. This guide tells you about the
other steps you can take to help protect the privacy of your
personal financial information.
What Can You
Stop--and What Can’t You Stop?
Federal privacy laws give you the right to
stop (opt out of) some sharing of your personal financial
information. These laws balance your right to privacy with
financial companies’ need to provide information for normal
business purposes. (For more information on these laws, see the appendix.)
You have the right to opt out of some information sharing with
companies that are:
- Part of the same corporate group as
your financial company (or affiliates)
- Not part of the same corporate group as
your financial company (or non-affiliates).
But you cannot opt out and completely stop
the flow of all your personal financial information. The
law permits your financial companies to share certain
information about you without giving you the right to opt out.
Among other things, your financial company can provide to
non-affiliates:
- Information about you to firms that
help promote and market the company’s own products or
products offered under a joint agreement between two
financial companies
- Records of your transactions--such as
your loan payments, credit card or debit card purchases, and
checking and savings account statements--to firms that
provide data processing and mailing services for your
company
- Information about you in response to a
court order
- Your payment history on loans and
credit cards to credit bureaus.
Your Right
to Opt Out
A privacy notice contains information
about the company’s data collection and information sharing
policies. If a financial company does not plan to share your
information except as permitted by law, the notice will tell you
this; in this case, you don’t have a right to opt out.
Non-affiliates.
If you have the right to opt out (that is, if the company plans
to share your information), the privacy notice will include
instructions on how to opt out of sharing some information.
Unless you opt out, your financial company can provide your
personal financial information (for example, information on the
kinds of stores you shop at, how much you borrow, your account
balances, or the dollar value of your assets) to non-affiliates
for marketing and other purposes.
Affiliates.
The privacy notice may also give you the right to opt out of
certain information sharing with affiliates. For example, if a
company intends to provide an affiliate with personal
information from your credit report or loan application, you
will usually first be given a chance to opt out. Companies,
however, can share information about you with affiliates when
the information is based solely on your transactions with that
company (transaction information includes whether you pay your
bills on time, the type of accounts you have with the company,
and so forth). Read your notices carefully to see if this type
of opt out applies.
If you want to opt out of information
sharing, you must follow the directions provided by your
financial company. For example, you may have to call a toll-free
number or fill out a form and return the form to the company.
In some cases, your financial company may
give you the choice to opt out of different types of sharing.
For example, you could opt out of certain categories of
information the company provides to other companies but allow
the company to share other kinds of information.
Privacy
Notices You May Receive
Initial Privacy
Notice. You will usually receive a privacy notice
when you open an account or become a customer of a financial
company. If you open an account over the phone, however, and you
agree, the company may send you a notice at a later time.
Annual Privacy
Notices. Each financial company you have an ongoing
relationship with--for example, the bank where you have a
checking account, your credit card company, or a company that
services your loan--must give you a notice of its privacy policy
annually.
Notice of Changes
in Privacy Policies. If a company changes its privacy
policy, it will either send you a revised privacy notice or tell
you about the changes in the company’s next annual notice.
A privacy notice may be included as an
insert with your monthly statement or bill, or it may be sent to
you in a separate mailing. If you agree to electronic delivery
from an on-line financial company, the notice may be sent to you
by e-mail or it may be made available to you on the company’s
web site.
If you have more than one account
with the same company, the company may send you only one privacy
notice for all of your accounts or it may send you separate
notices for each of your accounts.
If you have a joint account with
another person (for example, a joint checking account or a
mortgage loan), the financial company may send a notice to one
of you or to each person listed on the account. If the company
provides an opportunity to opt out, it must let one of the
account holders opt out for all joint account holders.
What to Do
When You Receive Your Notices
- Read all privacy notices.
- Get answers to your questions from your
financial company.
- If applicable, decide whether you want
to opt out.
- If you want to opt out, follow the
instructions in the notice--and, if necessary, shop around
for a financial institution with the privacy policy you
want.
Where Else
to Turn for Help
If you have questions or concerns about a
company’s privacy policy, first contact that company directly.
If you still have questions about your privacy rights in dealing
with a financial company, you can contact the federal or state
agency that oversees that type of company:
Board of Governors of
the Federal Reserve System
Regulates state-chartered banks that are
members of the Federal Reserve System, bank holding companies,
and branches of foreign banks
Division of Consumer and Community
Affairs, Stop 801
20th and C Streets, NW
Washington, DC 20551
202-452-3693
Commodity Futures
Trading Commission
Regulates commodity brokers, commodity
trading advisors, commodity pools, and introducing brokers
Privacy Officer, Office of Chief Counsel
Division of Trading and Markets
Three Lafayette Center
1155 21st Street, NW
Washington, DC 20581
202-418-5430
Federal Deposit
Insurance Corporation
Regulates state-chartered banks that are
not members of the Federal Reserve System
Division of Compliance and Consumer
Affairs
550 17th Street, NW
Washington, DC 20429
877-ASK-FDIC or 877-275-3342 toll-free
Federal Trade Commission
Regulates any financial company not
covered by the other federal regulators such as mortgage
brokers, tax and investment services, finance companies,
credit bureaus, nonbank lenders, auto dealers, leasing
companies, appraisers, real estate settlement services, credit
counseling services, and collection agency services
Consumer Response Center
600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20580
877-FTC-HELP or 877-382-4357 toll-free
National Credit Union
Administration
Regulates federally chartered credit
unions
Office of Public and Congressional
Affairs
1775 Duke Street
Alexandria, VA 22314-3428
703-518-6330
Office of the
Comptroller of the Currency
Regulates national banks, District of
Columbia banks, federal branches and federal agencies of
foreign banks, and subsidiaries of such entities. These
typically include banks with "national" or "N.A."
in their names.
Customer Assistance Group
1301 McKinney Street
Suite 3710
Houston, TX 77010
800-613-6743 toll-free
Office of Thrift
Supervision
Regulates federal savings and loan
associations and federal savings banks
Consumer Programs
1700 G Street, NW
Washington, DC 20552
800-842-6929 toll-free
Securities and Exchange
Commission
Regulates brokerage firms, mutual fund
companies, and investment advisors
Office of Investor Education and
Assistance
450 5th Street, NW
Washington, DC 20549-0213
202-942-9634 fax
Appendix
More Information About the Laws
Affecting Your Personal Financial Privacy
Two federal laws cover different aspects
of how companies can share your financial information, as
described in this guide: the Fair Credit Reporting Act and the
Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act.
The Fair Credit
Reporting Act protects the privacy of certain
information distributed by consumer reporting agencies (CRAs).
Most CRAs are credit bureaus that gather and provide information
about you, such as if you pay your bills on time or have filed
for bankruptcy, to creditors and other businesses. Under the
law, credit bureaus and other CRAs can release your information
only to those third parties that have certified that they have a
purpose permitted by the law to obtain your consumer report,
such as to evaluate your application for credit, insurance, or
employment, or to rent you an apartment.
When a financial company obtains your
credit report from a credit bureau, it may want to share that
information with an affiliate, meaning a company that owns your
financial company, that your financial company owns, or that is
part of the same parent organization or corporate family. Under
the Fair Credit Reporting Act, however, if the financial company
plans to share certain information--for example, from your
credit report or your credit application--with its affiliates,
it will usually first notify you and give you an opportunity to
opt out. This notice is likely to be included in the privacy
notice you receive from the financial company under the Gramm-Leach-Bliley
Act.
The Gramm-Leach-Bliley
Act requires financial companies to tell you about
their policies regarding the privacy of your personal financial
information. With some exceptions, the law limits the ability of
financial companies to share your personal financial information
with certain non-affiliates. A non-affiliate is a company that
is unrelated to your financial company, and may include:
- Service providers--companies
hired by your financial company to perform a specific
service, such as printing your checks
- Joint marketers--companies
that have an agreement with your financial company to offer
you other financial products or services
- Other third-party
non-affiliate--which could include companies that may
want access to your financial company’s mailing list to
tell you about other products and services.
Under the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, your
financial company can provide your personal financial
information to non-affiliated service providers including joint
marketers. But before it shares your information with other
third-party non-affiliates (outside of these exceptions), your
financial company must tell you about its information sharing
practices and give you the opportunity to opt out.
|
