Your FDIC Key to Financial Privacy Rights
Watch your mail. You'll soon be receiving an important message from your bank and other financial institutions you've had dealings with over the years. You'll be able to limit the personal information that banks and other financial institutions provide to other companies.
The message is a notice explaining that you, for the first time, can decide whether certain information these institutions have about you can be shared with or sold to other companies that are not part of the same parent organization.
The federal Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act of 1999 created this new opportunity for you as a way to balance your right to privacy with financial institutions' need to share information for normal business purposes. Some consumers don't object to information sharing—they want their names on mailing and telephone lists so they can easily find out about new products and services.
Other consumers want fewer solicitations and more privacy. If you're in the latter category, you have some important new responsibilities if you want to take advantage of your new rights. "You need to be observant," says Ken Baebel, Assistant Director of the FDIC's Division of Compliance and Consumer Affairs. "You need to look for these notices, which may come as part of a monthly statement or as a separate mailing.
You also need to understand whether an institution intends to share personal information with other companies and, if so, what you can do to prevent information sharing, if that's what you want. Otherwise, it will be up to the institution to decide who gets details about you and your finances", says Baebel.
According to the FDIC, there are more ways to stop unwanted solicitations. Some people want to be on marketers' mailing and telephone lists for new offers, but if you don't, here are some options:
- You can reduce the number of offers
for credit cards, insurance and other financial products that you receive
by calling toll-free 888-567-8688 to remove your name from marketing lists
that the nation's major credit bureaus provide to creditors and insurers.
- You can cut back on mailings and phone calls
from national advertisers by taking advantage of services offered by the
Direct Marketing Association. Go to www.dmaconsumers.org on the Internet.
- To be removed from marketing lists at local businesses,
contact them directly.
- Don't give out personal details (income or buying habits)
to people or businesses who ask for it unless you know and
approve of how that information will be used.
- Information you provide when you enter drawings at stores,
fill out warranty cards for new products or respond to surveys
on the Internet often gets sold or rented to other marketers.
Consumers can also receive the latest issue of the FDIC Consumer News by contacting the FDIC Public Information Center via voice-mail: 1-800-276-6003, or via e-mail: publicinfo@fdic.gov
See related articles in the AgeVenture archives.
Feds Fix Fraud Fretting Home Health Future
Internet Surfers Caught in Fraudulent Webs
Who's A Fraud Of The Phone
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