The Electronic Privacy Information Center is calling on us to get involved in a Federal initiative to limit the power of States to control how organizations firehose our personal information at each other. Write your congresscritter!
This Fall, Congress is likely to amend the federal Fair Credit
Reporting Act (FCRA) and in doing so, may override or "preempt" state
laws on affiliate sharing of personal information. Affiliate sharing
is the practice of transferring personal information amongst companies
with the same corporate ownership. Information transferred can
include name and contact information, Social Security Number, purchase
information, account numbers and balances, and even the information
individuals write on checks. Affiliate sharing is invasive because
individuals have no access to the data and cannot obtain an accounting
of disclosures; it is used to generate unwanted marketing and
telemarketing; and because it puts personal information at risk of
being misused.Affiliate sharing presents a large and growing risk to individuals'
privacy. It is likely to be the most important financial services
privacy issue in the next decade, especially as companies increase
profiling, cross-selling, and telemarketing activities using
affiliate-shared information. Companies, such as Citibank, that have
1,900 affiliates, or Bank of America, with over 1,000 entities in its
corporate family, can transmit personal information for these purposes
to an unlimited degree under federal law. If Congress continues this
standard, it will permanently prevent states from passing laws to
establish reasonable restrictions on affiliate sharing and on some
areas of identity theft. Furthermore, a federal standard is highly
anti-democratic, and comes at a time when California legislators have
just enacted a new law for affiliate sharing regulation that enjoys
significant public support.
(Thanks, Chris!)
