Privacy Choices for Your Personal Financial Information
Learning Goals/Objectives:
Explain ways consumers can protect their personal financial information.
Explain the laws that regulate the use of personal financial information.
Overview:
Consumers who use credit regularly receive privacy
notices from the banks and other financial companies they do business with.
These notices explain:
a) What personal financial information the company
collects.
b) Whether the company intends to share your
personal financial information with other companies.
c) What you can do, if the company intends to share
your personal financial information, to limit
some of that sharing.
d) How the company protects your personal financial
information.
This lesson looks at basic information about the
laws protecting personal credit and financial information. The primary online resources are the Board of
Governors of the Federal Reserve’s online publication “Privacy Choices for Your
Personal Financial Information,” http://www.federalreserve.gov/pubs/privacy/default.htm;
and the Federal Deposit
Insurance Corporation’s online publication “Consumer Financial Privacy,” http://www.fdic.gov/consumers/privacy/.
Grouping of Students:
Class discussion
Methods:
Review online resoruces.
Activities:
1. Ask: Should a bank, brokerage or other financial
company be able to share your personal information with other companies and
organizations for marketing purposes?
Explain that under the current laws, companies you
do business with have the right to share your information with their business
partners or other financial firms.
Explain that consumers (credit users) have legal
rights to protect their personal
(private) information. This lesson will
look at those privacy rights.
2. Go to
the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve web page: http://www.federalreserve.gov/pubs/privacy/default.htm
Review the information about financial information
privacy on the web page
3. Ask: What
kinds of personal information should be protected by law?
Student discussion should focus on identifying
personal information they think should be private and the reasons why that
information should be protected?
4. Ask:
Should businesses be allowed to sell information about you to other companies? Should you have to “opt out” of information
sharing or should you have to specifically give your permission to share
information?
Go to the FDIC web site: http://www.fdic.gov/consumers/privacy/yourrights/index.html
Discussion can focus on the topics on the
FDIC’s “Your Rights to Financial Privacy”
web page
5. Conclusion
The FDIC web page ends with this summary:
“Your right to financial privacy is important. And
thanks to the privacy law, you now have more of a say in how much of your
information financial institutions may share with other companies. It's up to
you to take advantage of these protections. Watch for the privacy notices from
your financial institutions, read them carefully and follow the instructions if
you decide to exercise your right to opt out. If you have questions, contact
your financial institution or one of the federal regulatory agencies on our
"For
More Help..." and "For More
Information" pages. We hope
that the information we've provided here will help you understand your
rights... and help you make decisions that are right for you.”
Materials:
Online: Privacy
Choices for Your Personal Financial Information, Federal Reserve, http://www.federalreserve.gov/pubs/privacy/default.htm
Online: Consumer Financial Privacy, Federal Deposit
Insurance Corporation, http://www.fdic.gov/consumers/privacy/
Assessment:
Identify the kinds of public information that you
are not able to protect.
Identify personal information you can prevent form
being shared with others.
Download:
- Login to post comments