SafeHarborTV.com: Privacy Articles

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Your Privacy Choices

If Your Information is Compromised

What Opting Out Means

Companies That May Send Privacy Notices

7 Practices for Safer Computing

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Privacy Choices for Your Personal
Financial Information

You’ve probably been receiving privacy notices from banks and other financial companies. These notices explain:

• What personal financial information the company collects

• Whether the company intends to share your personal financial information with other companies

• What you can do, if the company intends to share your personal financial information, to limit some of that sharing

• How the company protects your personal financial information.

Financial companies share information for many reasons: to offer you more services, to introduce new products, and to profit from the information they have about you. If you like to know about other products and services, you may want your financial company to share your personal financial information; in this case, you don’t need to respond to the privacy notice. If you prefer to limit the promotions you receive or do not want marketers and others to have your personal financial information, you must take some important steps.

First, it is important to read these privacy notices. They explain how the company handles and shares your personal financial information. Keep in mind that not all privacy notices are the same. This guide tells you about the other steps you can take to help protect the privacy of your personal financial information.

What Can You Stop— and What Can’t You Stop?

Federal privacy laws give you the right to stop (opt out of) some sharing of your personal financial information. These laws balance your right to privacy with financial companies’ need to provide information for normal business purposes. You have the right to opt out of some information sharing with companies that are:

• Part of the same corporate group as your financial company (or affiliates)

• Not part of the same corporate group as your financial company (or non-affiliates).

But, you cannot opt out and completely stop the flow of all your personal financial information. The law permits your financial companies to share certain information about you without giving you the right to opt out. Among other things, your financial company can provide to non-affiliates:

• Information about you to firms that help promote and market the company’s own products or products offered under a joint agreement between two financial companies

• Records of your transactions —such as your loan payments, credit card or debit card purchases, and checking and savings account statements—to firms that provide data processing and mailing services for your company

• Information about you in response to a court order

• Your payment history on loans and credit cards to credit bureaus.

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What To Do If Your Personal Information Has Been Compromised

Companies or institutions that keep personal information about you have an obligation to safeguard it. Still, from time to time, the personal information they hold may be accidentally disclosed or deliberately stolen. If your information falls into the wrong hands, it may be misused to commit fraud against you.

If you get a notice that your personal information may have been compromised, taking certain steps quickly can minimize the potential for the theft of your identity.

If the stolen information includes your financial accounts, close compromised credit card accounts immediately. Consult with your financial institution about whether to close bank or brokerage accounts immediately or first change your passwords and have the institution monitor for possible fraud. Place passwords on any new accounts that you open. Avoid using your mother’s maiden name, your birth date, the last four digits of your Social Security number (SSN) or your phone number, or a series of consecutive numbers.

If the stolen information includes your Social Security number, call the toll-free fraud number of any one of the three nationwide consumer reporting companies and place an initial fraud alert on your credit reports. This alert can help stop someone from opening new credit accounts in your name.

Equifax: 1-800-525-6285; www.equifax.com; P.O. Box 740241, Atlanta, GA 30374-0241

Experian: 1-888-EXPERIAN (397-3742); www.experian.com; P.O. Box 2002, Allen, TX 75013

TransUnion: 1-800-680-7289; www.transunion.com; Fraud Victim Assistance Division, P.O. Box 6790, Fullerton, CA 92834-6790

An initial fraud alert stays on your credit report for 90 days. When you place this alert on your credit report with one nationwide consumer reporting company, you’ll get information about ordering one free credit report from each of the companies. It’s prudent to wait about a month after your information was stolen before you order your report. That’s because suspicious activity may not show up right away. Once you get your reports, review them for suspicious activity, like inquiries from companies you didn’t contact, accounts you didn’t open, and debts on your accounts that you can’t explain. Check that information like your SSN, address(es), name or initials, and employers — is correct.

If the stolen information includes your driver’s license or other government-issued identification, contact the agencies that issued the documents and follow their procedures to cancel a document and get a replacement. Ask the agency to “flag” your file to keep anyone else from getting a license or another identification document in your name.

Once you’ve taken these precautions, watch for signs that your information is being misused. For example, you may not get certain bills or other mail on time. Follow up with creditors if your bills don’t arrive on time. A missing bill could mean an identity thief has taken over your account and changed your billing address to cover his tracks. Other signs include:

• receiving credit cards that you didn’t apply for;

• being denied credit, or being offered less favorable credit terms, like a high interest rate, for no apparent reason; and

• getting calls or letters from debt collectors or businesses about merchandise or services you didn’t buy.

Continue to read your financial account statements promptly and carefully, and to monitor your credit reports every few months in the first year of the theft, and once a year thereafter. For more information on getting your credit reports free once a year or buying additional reports, read Your Access to Free Credit Reports at http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/credit/freereports.htm.

If your information has been misused, file a report about your identity theft with the police, and file a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission at www.consumer.gov/idtheft.

Source: Federal Trade Commission

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What Opting Out Means

If you opt out, you limit the extent to which the company can provide your personal financial information to non-affiliates.

If you do not opt out within a “reasonable period of time”— generally about 30 days after the company mails the notice— then the company is free to share certain personal financial information.

If you didn’t opt out the first time you received a privacy notice from a financial company, it’s not too late. You can always change your mind and opt out of certain information sharing. Contact your financial company and ask for instructions on how to opt out.

Remember, however, that any personal financial information that was shared before you opted out cannot be retrieved.

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Companies That May Send Privacy Notices

Companies involved in financial activities must send their customers privacy notices, including:

• Banks, savings and loans, and credit unions

• Insurance companies • Securities and commodities brokerage firms

• Retailers that directly issue their own credit cards (such as department stores or gas stations)

• Mortgage brokers

• Automobile dealerships that extend or arrange financing or leasing

• Check cashers and payday lenders

• Financial advisors and credit counseling services

• Sellers of money orders or travelers checks.

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7 Practices for Safer Computing

Being on guard online helps you protect your information, your computer, even yourself. To be safer and more secure online, adopt these seven practices:

1. Protect your personal information. It’s valuable. To minimize your risk of identity theft, don’t share your personal information unless you know how it will be used and protected. Don’t reply to or click on links in any email asking for your personal information.

2. Know who you’re dealing with. When shopping online, look for a seller’s physical address and a working telephone number. Before downloading free software, read the fine print —some downloads come with spyware.

3. Use anti-virus and anti-spyware software, as well as a firewall. Update them all regularly; many update automatically. Look for anti-virus software that removes or quarantines viruses, and for antispyware software that can undo changes spyware makes to your system. Make sure your firewall is on and set up properly.

4. Be sure to set up your operating system and Web browser software properly, and update them regularly. Select security settings high enough to reduce your risk of being hacked. Make sure to regularly update your system with the latest patches.

5. Protect your passwords. Keep your passwords in a secure place, and don’t share them on the Internet, over email, or on the phone.

6. Back up important files. If you have important files stored on your computer, copy them onto a removable disc, and store it in a safe place.

7. Learn who to contact if something goes wrong online. Visit OnGuardOnline.gov and click on “File a Complaint” to learn how to respond if problems occur when you’re online. OnGuard Online provides practical tips from the federal government and the technology industry to help you be on guard against Internet fraud, secure your computer, and protect your personal information.

Source: Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System

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