Editorial: Preserving our privacy protections

Friday, Oct. 1, 1999 | 9:02 a.m.

The House and Senate are trying to reach an agreement that would overhaul the nation's laws that govern the financial services industry. If the laws are changed, banks, securities firms and insurance companies would be allowed to merge. This legislation also would let these companies share customer information -- such as addresses, account information and even health records -- so they could market other products and services. But privacy advocates are appropriately worried that this could result in the dangerous situation of customers no longer being able to determine who should have access to such sensitive records.

Many states also have indicated their concerns with the bill, as 21 attorneys general, including Nevada Attorney General Frankie Sue Del Papa, are asking Congress to write legislation mandating that companies get a customer's permission first before information is sold or shared. Here in Nevada the two largest banks, Bank of America and Wells Fargo, say their policies forbid selling information, but as the Sun's Phil Levine reported Wednesday, the attorney general's office is concerned enough that it is investigating whether any banks in the state may be breaking the law by engaging in this practice.

It is hard to imagine a nation that cherishes privacy more than the United States, whether it is in our constitutional protections or laws protecting us from unwanted intrusions by the government. But a new threat to privacy looms from the private sector which, through our increasingly computerized world and the breakneck speed of mergers in recent years, has contributed to businesses swapping some of the most personal information imaginable. It is wrong, then, to require a customer of a financial services firm to track down the company and ask that his records not be shared. Senate and House negotiators should come to an accord that ensures companies must get the permission of a customer before any information is given out.