The Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLB Act) requires that financial institutions issue privacy notices to their customers, and, in certain circumstances, provide them with the opportunity to opt out of disclosures of nonpublic personal information to nonaffiliated third parties. Concerns have been raised about the clarity and effectiveness of some of the privacy notices. At the same time, some financial institutions have sought additional guidance about the form and content of their notices from the federal agencies charged with implementing and enforcing the GLB Act.

To address these critical and timely issues, the eight federal agencies (GLB Agencies) that issued regulations implementing the Act’s privacy provisions will held a joint public workshop, entitled Get Noticed: Effective Financial Privacy Notices, on Tuesday, December 4, 2001. The workshop addressed the challenges of and strategies for providing effective notice under the GLB Act. This interagency effort brought together government officials, financial institutions, industry associations, consumer and privacy advocates, and communications experts to discuss these issues through moderated panel discussions.