When you get mail from your bank, it seems like it always either a statement, an offer for a new service or a privacy notice. I always wonder why my bank feels the need to change their privacy policies so often. Despite how boring the average privacy policy is, though, I do make the effort to look over each one I get.
A privacy policy tells you:
- the personal financial information your bank, lender or other financial company collects
- what parts of your personal information your company shares with other companies
- how you can limit the amount of information your company can share
- how your company protects your private information
Your personal financial information is valuable — your bank may make a pretty penny by selling the information that you keep quite a bit of liquid cash in your checking account. It’s up to you to decide whether you want them selling that information, of course, but, personally, I want as little of my information to be known as possible. A lack of privacy doesn’t just open you up to annoying ads. It also increases your risks of identity theft and other types of fraud.
You can’t entirely stop some companies from sharing your information, but you can often opt out. When you receive a privacy notice, it’s often information on how to opt out of the most recent plan to share your personal information. Banks and other financial companies are required by law to tell you how to opt out of such plans. But you want to read your privacy notices right away. Don’t let them build up, because you can have as little as 30 days from the date the company mailed the notice to stop them from handing out your financial information.
A wide variety of companies that handle your financial information have privacy policies in place. although not all may send out notices. Companies that may set privacy policies — which, in turn, may include selling your private information to other companies — include:
- Banks
- Credit unions
- Insurance companies
- Securities and commodities brokers
- Retailers that issue credit cards (Gas stations, department stores, etc.)
- Mortgage brokers
- Automobile dealerships
- Check cashers
- Payday lenders
- Financial advisers
- Credit counseling services
- Money order sellers
- Travelers check sellers
- Credit card companies
Pretty scary to think about how many companies have your personal financial information and how many of them can just sell it off if they want, isn’t it? And, like most of us, you’ve probably just been throwing all those privacy notes away, haven’t you?
Keeping your information private doesn’t take a whole lot of effort, though. Whenever you receive a privacy notice, skim it looking for contact information. When you find it, information on how to opt out of whatever current plan to share your information your bank has should be in the same general section. If you don’t have time to read the whole notice, reading just that section can help you protect your privacy.
