Privacy letters get little notice

Associated Press

WASHINGTON — Many Americans greeted the "privacy notices" they received in the mail recently with a hook shot into the trash can.

	Links
•	www.privacyrights.org/ar/GLB-Reading.htm
•	www.aba.com/Press+Room/ bankfee060701.htm

Such information is like gold for telemarketers, direct mailers, retailers and others who want to identify the people most likely to buy their products or services.

"If you just think about what's on your monthly credit card account statement, there's a lot of revealing information there," said Beth Givens, director of the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, a consumer organization based in San Diego.

Under federal law, yesterday was the deadline for banks, credit unions, insurance companies, mortgage providers, brokerage houses and other businesses that collect personal financial information to mail out notices telling people how they handle it. And if companies want to sell that personal information to non-affiliated businesses, they have to give consumers a chance to say no — known as "opting out."

Many of the notices offer toll-free numbers to call or forms to mail back that give consumers a limited right to block release of their information.

The notices, however, have attracted little attention. A survey last month by the American Bankers Association, for instance, found that just 36 percent of Americans said they had read their privacy notices, 22 percent hadn't bothered and 41 percent didn't remember getting them or hadn't received them.

Among those who have read them, few have opted out — less than 1 percent by some estimates.

John Byrne, the banking association's general counsel, said that is because many people see advantages in having their personal information spread around: They can get catalogs, discount offers and other enticements tied to their interests.

Consumer groups, however, have a different interpretation. They argue that the privacy notices are densely written and that the information people need — including the toll-free numbers to call to opt out — are buried in fine print.

A "readability" analysis of 34 notices, for instance, found that most were written at a third- or fourth-year college reading level and some were at a graduate-school level.

Many groups are asking the government to do something about this issue, largely because many companies that sent out information used sample language provided by the government. Twelve House Democrats are asking federal regulators to develop rules to clarify the notices.

However, consumer advocates say that clearer wording won't solve the problem. Even if people opt out, they can't block information-sharing among affiliated companies, such as banks, brokerages and insurers that join under the same corporate roof. And there are still some cases in which information can be shared with unaffiliated companies.