| 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.
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 providers--companies hired by
your financial company to perform a
specific 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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