Coalition Letter to Conferees on Financial Privacy

October 19, 1999

Dear Conferees on S. 900:

We are writing to you because the current conference language on privacy is completely unacceptable. If there is no significant improvement in the consumer privacy provision, we will urge you to vote against the final conference report. The conferees have failed to agree to any of the critical privacy amendments offered by Senator Shelby and Representative Markey to ensure that the bill gives consumers control over the sharing and selling of their confidential financial information for secondary purposes. 

As you know, our organizations, representing a broad spectrum of the American public, have joined together in an unprecedented coalition working to ensure that the financial modernization legislation, S. 900, includes the strong privacy protections that citizens demand. Unfortunately, the amended conference bill's weak disclosure-only requirements for affiliate sharing and most third party sharing do not meet the Fair Information Practices-based privacy platforms of either our coalition or the Administration. Therefore, we urge opposition to the current version of S. 900.  

Passage of the current version will also undermine ongoing state activities to protect consumer privacy. If passed, this bill will allow banks and other firms to claim falsely that the bill protects consumer privacy, when in fact, it enshrines into law the right of financial firms to exploit and profit from the sharing of confidential and private customer information. Consumers deserve real privacy protection. Financial institutions should not be allowed to share and sell confidential customer records without consent.  

If this version is reported out without stronger privacy protections, our organizations will urge the President to veto the measure because it is such an obvious assault on the privacy rights of the American public. Please also be advised that a number of our organizations have additional remaining concerns with this legislation, which we have outlined in other letters.  

Sincerely,

American Civil Liberties Union
Center for Democracy and Technology
Consumer Federation of America
Consumers Union
Eagle Forum
Electronic Privacy Information Center
Free Congress Foundation
Privacy Times
U.S. Public Interest Research Group