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Consumer Clout - sharing of customer information within the financial services industry
PRIVACY | When customers picked up
the phone to ask one company about its policy on SHARING
INFORMATION, they got results.
ON MY DESK at home are stacked a dozen or so notices
from financial-services companies, which are required
by law to tell me how they handle my personal financial
information. The first to arrive last spring was from
Allmerica Financial, a life insurance company.
When I received it, I was puzzled that it didn't give
me an opportunity to opt out of letting the
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company share
information about me with nonaffiliated third parties--which
is, after all, the whole point of sending the notices.
Nor did it state that Allmerica had elected not to sell
data to third parties--a step some firms have taken to
save consumers the hassle of opting out.
As a customer rather than a journalist, I called the
toll-free number and expressed my concern. Company counsel
William Cahill promptly returned my call and explained
that Allmerica has no plans to share personal information
with third-party marketers.
In July I received a letter from Mr. Cahill telling me
that, based on my input and that of other customers, "we
have modified our Privacy Notice. We do not share information
with nonaffiliated third parties that would use it to
market products or services to you."
Companies have been criticized for mailing privacy notices
that are inscrutable and easy to miss, in hopes that consumers
will ignore them. Many people apparently have. But at
least one firm was willing to clarify its policy when
clients took the trouble to read it.
COPYRIGHT 2001 The Kiplinger Washington Editors, Inc.
COPYRIGHT 2001 Gale Group
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