Privacy Choices for
Your Personal Financial Information
Produced in cooperation with the Board of Governors
of the Federal Reserve System, Commodity Futures Trading
Commission, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, Federal Trade
Commission, National Credit Union Administration, Office of the
Comptroller of the Currency, Office of Thrift Supervision,
Securities and Exchange Commission.
You've probably been
receiving privacy notices from banks and other financial
companies. These notices explain:
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
Companies involved in
financial activities must send their customers privacy
notices, including:
-
Banks, savings and
loans, and credit unions
-
Insurance
companies
-
Securities and
commodities brokerage firms
-
Retailers that
directly issue their own credit cards (such as department
stores or gas
stations)
Mortgage brokers
Automobile
dealerships that extend or arrange financing or leasing
Check cashers and
payday lenders
Financial advisors
and credit counseling services
Sellers of money
orders or travelers checks.
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:
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:
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.
What Opting Out
Means
If you opt out, you
limit the extent to which the company can provide
your
personal financial information to non-affiliates.
If
you do not opt out within a "reasonable period of
time"--generally about
30 days after the company mails the notice-- then the company is
free to share certain
personal financial information. If
you didn't opt out the first time you received a privacy notice
from a financial
company, it's not too late. You can always change your mind
and opt out of certain
information sharing. Contact your financial
company
and ask for instructions on how to opt out. Remember,
however, that any personal financial information that was shared
before you opted out cannot be retrieved.
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.
Credit bureaus may
also sell information about you to lenders and
insurers
who use the information to decide whether to send you
unsolicited offers of
credit or insurance. This is known as prescreening.
You
can opt out of receiving these prescreened offers by calling
1-888-567-8688.
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
www.federalreserve.gov
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
www.cftc.gov
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
www.fdic.gov
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
www.ftc.gov
also see www.consumer.gov/idtheft/
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
www.ncua.gov
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
www.occ.treas.gov
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
www.ots.treas.gov
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
www.sec.gov/complaint.shtml
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,
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.
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The FTC works for the consumer to
prevent fraudulent, deceptive and unfair business practices in the
marketplace and to provide information to help consumers spot, stop and
avoid them. To file a
complaint or to get free information
on consumer issues, visit
www.ftc.gov or
call toll-free, 1-877-FTC-HELP (1-877-382-4357); TTY: 1-866-653-4261. The
FTC enters Internet, telemarketing, identity theft and other fraud-related
complaints into
Consumer Sentinel, a
secure, online database available to hundreds of civil and criminal law
enforcement agencies in the U.S. and abroad.
|
FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION |
FOR THE CONSUMER |
1-877-FTC-HELP |
www.ftc.gov |
|
February 2002 |