North Dakota Voters Reject 'opt-out' Law

dakota_kid writes "Congratulations to the North Dakotans at protectourprivacy.net! They succeeded in convincing more than 70% of North Dakota voters to repeal a law that allowed banks and other financial institutions to share (read sell) a customer's private information unless the customer contacts each institution and 'opts-out'. This effectively requires these institutions to obtain the permission of their customers before sharing their personal information, e.g., getting them to 'opt-in'. I know most people don't pay much attention to the activities of North Dakota, and perhaps bank privacy laws, but most of the United States has similar laws, and because of what the North Dakota voters did yesterday, civil rights activists in other states my follow suite. So, if that's you, get to work, you can do it!"

Comments

amazing!

[cheezus]

And I was all worried because I forgot it was election day until after the polls had closed (doh! i suck at doing my civic duty). That was the main issue I wanted to vote on.

I'm suprised that ND now has the tough privacy law. Some organization (no doubt funded by businesses like the banks) was running a LOT of television spots trying to scare us into thinking that having tighter privacy laws would "build a wall" around ND that would keep new business out. They also ran a cheezy one with a farmer on a tractor talking about how he trusts the local banks and credit unions, and there's no need to make even more new laws.

Hooray for the most backward (well, except for the deep south) state in the union doing something progressive for a change!

great

[austad]

All 600,000 residents are now protected! Actually, having lived in ND for a year and half, it's surprising that this actually happened. They ran ads trying to scare people saying it would keep business out of the state, and I've noticed that people there tend to believe everything they see on TV, and are very concerned about bringing more business to the state.

Of course, it's not privacy laws that are going to keep business out, it's the flatness, the lack of activities, and the high cost of getting a fat pipe that's keeping business away. Not to mention that if a business needs some piece of equipment in a hurry, it will take a couple days to ship it there since it's doubtful that it's available locally. I don't miss living there one bit, but it's good that they actually repealed this evil law.

Link to article in ComputerWorld

[MacRonin]

"ComputerWorld" - N.D. voters side overwhelmingly with privacy.

WASHINGTON -- In a vote with potential national implications, North Dakota residents overwhelmingly agreed yesterday to bar the sale of personal data collected by banks, credit unions and other financial services firms to third parties.

This is the first time that voters in a state have had the chance to toughen privacy protections set in the federal Gramm-Leach-Bliley financial modernization law, which allows financial services firms to freely share information without consumer consent.

Of the approximately 115,000 votes cast in yesterday's referendum, nearly 74% voted to require consumer consent before data is shared. The state elections board offered vote results online.

"This is the beginning of a consumer backlash against the sharing of information," said Avivah Litan, an analyst at Gartner Inc. in Stamford, Conn.

[ ... ]

Privacy advocates say the vote reaffirms opinion polls showing that customers want stronger privacy protections. "It's no longer speculation -- people want opt-in," said Chris Hoofnagle, legislative counsel at the Electronic Privacy Information Center.

The vote comes at the same time Congress is considering legislation by U.S. Sen. Ernest "Fritz" Hollings (D-S.C.) that would preempt the ability of states to do what North Dakotan voters did yesterday.

"It's becoming clearer that preemption of state law is an attempt to prevent strong privacy protections," said Hoofnagle.