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How Private Is Your Financial Data?
Our bank, BankDirect, is mailing customers a 'Notice of your Financial Privacy Rights', containing the following text: 'We may disclose information about you to our affiliates. Here are the kinds of information and the source of that information: Information about your transactions and experience with us, such as: Name, address, account balances, account activity, types of accounts, transaction history, and payment history. Federal law allows us to disclose the information listed above with our affiliates. You do not have the right to opt out of the disclosure of this information...We may disclose information about you to our affiliates: 1) to provide you with information about additional products and services; and 2) to better serve you, to help us save you time and money, and to help you understand your specific needs.' Am I the only one who is bothered that my bank is ready to share my transaction history, including my salary (direct deposit) and payments to merchants (online bill pay)? More importantly, are there any banks that don't share (or sell) their customers' private information? I couldn't help but notice that BankDirect's web site has a different
privacy policy, which reassuringly states 'We restrict access to nonpublic personal information about you to those employees who need to know that information to provide products or services to you.' Hmmm..."
BankDirect's web site has a different privacy policy, which reassuringly states 'We restrict access to nonpublic personal information about you to those employees who need to know that information to provide products or services to you.' Hmmm..."
Wow. That seems like a glaring contradiction to me. How could they send out the e-mail you included above when their privacy policy is much more conservative? That seems like a lawsuit in the making...
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"For a number of years I have been familiar with the observation that the quality of programmers is a decreasing function of the density of go to statements in the programs they produce."
- Edsger Djikstra
"I either want less corruption, or more chance
to participate in it." -- Ashleigh Brilliant
See that word "affiliate" in there? That means, basically, other divisions of the same corporate family. If they have a broker-dealer unit, for example, that's not technically part of the bank, so its ads are sent to you by an "affiliate." It's pointless to try to regulate information sharing within a single business, and don't believe anyone who says they will.
Nothing to see here, move along.
I Can't Believe It's A Law Firm, LLP does not necessarily endorse the contents of this message.
Gold is only worth something as long as people demand it. Admittably Gold is worth something in the real world (electronics, beauty), but so are cigarettes. A good medium of exchange is
1) Small enough to handle
2) Split into small denominations
3) Durable (If gold is useful in electronics, it means its less durable, like cigarettes that are smoked, and pigs that die)
4) Most importantly, accepted as payment
If people suddenly decided not to accept gold as payment, then you're stuffed. Diversity will save you. Keep some physical assests that dont depreciate much (or even get more valuable as time goes on), keep bundles of cash from US Dolalrs, Euros, Yen, Sterling, Brazillian currency, couple of middle eastern ones, austrailian, south africa and maybe Russian and keep gold, platinum, silver, oil and other valuable commodities in various locations arround the world (in case of nuclear attack/change of government).
while not a cure-all, seem a bit better on this front than a regular bank.
Ditch your bank. Join a CU.
BC
Here in the UK, rival banks make it very easy to switch - all you do is sign once and they move all your direct debits, etc. for you (I get frequent offers but I'm happy with my bank right now, so I don't know how well that works)
If you can't find a privacy friendly bank, or it's insanely hard to get all your banking services transfered, you could always randomize your spending habbits:
1. Withdraw all your cash and pay for everything through the whole month in cash
2. Withdraw all your cash and then pay it back in 2 days later. repeat.
3. Pay for everything on a credit card, then clear it at the end of the month.
4. Make frequent small withdrawls instead of weekly large withdrawls
at least then, you'll be partly masking what you're upto and providing less valuable information to their 'partners'....
It is that different from Europe.
In the good ol' USA there is no real privacy.
Anyone who expects to have privacy in the USA is a fool, especially given recent events in the name of curbing 'terrorism.'
The problem with this is, terror can be defined in too many different ways. I was watching something on TV with a rep from the Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) saying how some drunk dude 'terrorized' a family.
There is no real definition of terrorism being used in the USA. The term 'National Security' is also very generalized...
I think the USA needs another political party; for 'the thinking citizen.' Expectations of privacy, human rights, social programs, and technology could be but a few of the major planks of said new political platform.
I don't see one problem with a bank sharing information. As long as they aren't sharing pin numbers or other information that would allow someone to steal my identity, even thing is fine.
-BrentFirst of all, "affiliates" probably means companies with which the bank has a close relationship. For instance, many banks have outside companies do their data processing or do their online banking or bill pay services for them. There's really no way they could do these services without sharing your info.
As for banks that don't share your information, have you considered trying a credit union? Unlike banks whose main concern is making money for the shareholders, a credit union's main concern is providing the best service to their members because it is run by the members for the members.
As it states federal law says that they are allowed to do this. More worrisome is the list of "affiliates", which is usually included in these disclaimers. Most of the policies pose "affiliates" in such a way as to suggest that they are only internal departments and subsidiary companies. But, the fact is that affiliates also include marketing organizations and a lot more.
In a few cases the banks actually have a subsidiary marketing company whose product is marketing lists. In these cases the information is shared with the "affiliates" for "legitimate business purposes" but, the "affiliates" then turn around and resell your information to anyone with the cash.
Recently, I was contacted by a mortgage telemarketer, which I have never done business with. they had ALL of my data including transaction history. When I told them I wasn't interested and that their information was inaccurate they actually had the gall to ask me to correct the inaccurate data. The schmuck says, "We pay a lot of money to get this information and if we aren't getting the right information we need to know about it and you need to help us fix it.". Naturally, I advised him to get bent but it is still infuriating that ANYONE can get this information.
The problem goes further too. It's not just marketing companies that are working against us. The government is as well. No, I'm not a conspiracy theorist.
Few people realize that numerous government agencies provide personal information including your Social Security number to companies "with a legitimate business need for that information". They list examples of companies with legitimate business needs and the first example on the list is marketing companies.
Of course it sucks! But, the genie is out of the bottle.
the USA needs another political party; for 'the thinking citizen.'
I kind of agree, to some extent.
The big parties are pretty well sold out and their purchasers aren't interested in having to buy out a third major party in addition to laying out money for the big two.
Even looking at the minority parties, however, you'll find that many of them, while not yet corrupted by money, have caved into some kind of world view based on emotion or value judgements that are, from their perspective, non-negotiable.
"Provided by the management for your protection."
and to help you understand your specific needs.
I have a wife, and if necessary, a shrink for this purpose. I feel very much like this is one of those "we'll tell you what you can and cannot have or do, and you will like it".
If I were you I'd find another bank right away and LET THEM KNOW why you are leaving them. Your private information is private and should remain that way.
I think with the interesting people, their lives can't possibly be wrapped up into a nice little package.
"'We may disclose information about you to our affiliates..."
Typically a financial institution considers an affiliate to be another (smaller) bank owned by the same corporate parent. An affiliate may also be another company in the corporate structure. It does not necesarilly mean a 3rd party or independant company with a working relationship to the first company.
That said, I still consider my financial (or any personal info of mine) to be mine, and I want the right to know when this information is being traded or sold, and the right to opt out.
I humbly apologize to the community: I meant Regulation P, of course, not Reg E. The definition of affitiate I gave was, however, correct: it requires at least enough common ownership to constitute control. Amazon's "affiliates" are not Reg P affiliates.
I Can't Believe It's A Law Firm, LLP does not necessarily endorse the contents of this message.