Federal Trade Commission | consumer.ftc.gov

Privacy Choices

for Your Personal Financial 

Information

1

Many companies you do business with are 

required to give you privacy notices that 

explain their information-sharing practices. 

In turn, you have the right to limit some — but not 

all — sharing of your information. The law balances 

your right to privacy with a company’s need to provide 

information for normal business purposes.

Privacy Notices 101

Privacy notices explain what personal financial 

information a company collects; whether the company 

intends to share your personal financial information 

with other companies; what you can do to limit some 

of that sharing; and how the company protects your 

personal financial information.

Companies involved in financial activities that must 

send their customers privacy notices include:

● banks, savings and loans, and credit unions

● insurance companies

● securities and commodities brokerage firms

● retailers that issue their own credit cards (like 

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

● companies that sell money orders or 

travelers checks
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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 want 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 you don’t want marketers and others to have your 

personal financial information — you must take some 

important steps.

The bottom line is that it’s important to read these 

privacy notices. They explain how a company handles 

and shares your personal financial information. Not all 

privacy notices are the same.

What You Can and Can’t Stop

You have the right to opt out of some information 

sharing with companies that are not part of the same 

corporate group as your financial company (nonaffiliates). If the information being shared comes 

from your credit report, you also have the right to opt 

out of such sharing with companies affiliated with 

your financial company. Financial companies can 

share certain types of information about you without 

giving you the right to opt out. For example, your 

financial company can provide to non-affiliates without 

providing an opt-out: information about you to firms 

that help promote and market the company’s own 

products or products offered under a joint agreement 
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Opting Out Means

If you opt out, you limit the extent to which the company 

can provide your personal financial information. If you 

don’t opt out within a “reasonable period of time” — 

generally about 30 days after the company mails you 

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. Ask your 

financial company for instructions on how to opt out. But 

remember, any personal financial information that was 

shared before you opted out cannot be retrieved.

between two financial companies; records of your 

transactions — like 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; 

and your payment history on loans and credit cards to 

credit reporting companies.
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Your Right to Opt Out

A privacy notice contains information about the 

company’s data collection and information sharing 

policies. If a financial company doesn’t plan to share 

your information except as allowed by law, the notice 

will say so. In this instance, you don’t have a right to 

opt out.

Non-affiliates. If the company plans to share your 

information with a non-affiliate, you have the right to 

opt out in most circumstances. The privacy notice will 

include instructions on how to opt out. Unless you opt 

out, your financial company can share your personal 

financial information (for example, information 

on the kinds of stores you shop at, how much you 

borrow, your account balances, or the dollar value 

of your assets) to non-affiliates for marketing and 

other purposes. There are some types of information 

sharing that you cannot opt out of, however. For 

example, you cannot opt out if the company is sharing 

your information in order to market its own products 

or services, or if the company is reporting your 

information to credit reporting companies.

Affiliates. If the company plans to share information 

from your credit report with an affiliate, you have a 

right to opt out. Read your notices carefully to see if 

this type of opt out applies. Companies can, however, 

share information about you with affiliates when 

the information is based solely on your transactions 

with that company, including whether you pay your 
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bills on time and the type of accounts you have with 

the company.

If you want to opt out of information sharing, you 

must follow the directions provided by your financial 

company. For example, you may have to call a tollfree number or fill out a form and return the form to 

the company.

In some cases, your financial company may give you 

the choice to opt out of different types of sharing. 

For example, you could opt out of certain categories 

of information the company provides to other 

companies but allow the company to share other kinds 

of information.

Credit reporting companies also may sell information 

about you to lenders and insurers who use the 

information to decide whether to send you unsolicited 

offers of credit or insurance. This is known as 

prescreening. You can opt out of receiving prescreened 

offers by calling 1-888-567-8688. For more 

information, see Prescreened Credit and Insurance 

Offers at consumer.ftc.gov.
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Types of Privacy Notices

The Initial Privacy Notice. Usually, you will get 

a privacy notice when you become a customer of a 

financial company. If you open an account by phone, 

however, and you agree, the company may send you a 

notice later.

Annual Privacy Notices. Each financial company 

you have an ongoing relationship with — for example, 

the bank where you have a checking account, your 

credit card company, or a company that services your 

mortgage loan — must give you a notice of its privacy 

policy annually.

Notice of Changes in Privacy Policies. If a company 

changes its privacy policy, it will send you a revised 

privacy notice or tell you about the changes in the 

company’s next annual notice.

A privacy notice may be included as an insert with 

your monthly statement or bill, or it may be sent to 

you separately. If you agree to electronic delivery 

from an on-line financial company, the notice may be 

sent to you via e-mail or made available to you on the 

company’s website.

If you have more than one account with the same 

company, you may get only one privacy notice for all 

your accounts, or separate notices for each account.

If you have a joint account, the financial company 

may send a notice to one of you or to each person 

listed on the account. If the company offers an 
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opportunity to opt out, it must let one of the account 

holders opt out for all parties on the account. You may 

request separate notices, however.

For More Information and Complaints

If you have questions or concerns about a company’s 

privacy policy, first contact that company directly. If 

you still have questions about your privacy rights in 

dealing with a financial company, contact the federal 

or state agency that oversees that type of company:

Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System

Regulates state-chartered banks that are members of 

the Federal Reserve System, bank holding companies, 

and branches of foreign banks

Division of Consumer and Community Affairs, Stop 801

20th and C Streets, NW

Washington, DC 20551

202-452-3693

federalreserve.gov

Commodity Futures Trading Commission

Regulates commodity brokers, commodity trading 

advisors, commodity pools, and introducing brokers

Privacy Officer, Office of Chief Counsel

Division of Trading and Markets

Three Lafayette Center

1155 21st Street, NW

Washington, DC 20581

202-418-5430

cftc.gov
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Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation

Regulates state-chartered banks that are not members 

of the Federal Reserve System

Division of Compliance and Consumer Affairs

550 17th Street, NW

Washington, DC 20429

877-ASK-FDIC or 877-275-3342 toll-free

fdic.gov

Federal Trade Commission

Regulates any financial company not covered by the 

other federal regulators, like mortgage brokers, tax 

and investment services, finance companies, credit 

reporting companies, nonbank lenders, auto dealers, 

leasing companies, appraisers, real estate settlement 

services, credit counseling services, and collection 

agency services

Consumer Response Center

600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW

Washington, DC 20580

877-FTC-HELP or 877-382-4357 toll-free

ftc.gov

National Credit Union Administration

Regulates federally chartered credit unions

Office of Public and Congressional Affairs

1775 Duke Street

Alexandria, VA 22314-3428

703-518-6330

ncua.gov
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Office of the Comptroller of the Currency

Regulates national banks, District of Columbia banks, 

federal branches and federal agencies of foreign banks, 

and subsidiaries of such entities. These typically 

include banks with “national” or “N.A.” in their 

names.

Customer Assistance Group

1301 McKinney Street, Suite 3710

Houston, TX 77010

800-613-6743 toll-free

occ.gov

Office of Thrift Supervision

Regulates federal savings and loan associations and 

federal savings banks

Consumer Programs

1700 G Street, NW

Washington, DC 20552

800-842-6929 toll-free

ots.gov

Securities and Exchange Commission

Regulates brokerage firms, mutual fund companies, 

and investment advisors

Office of Investor Education and Assistance

450 5th Street, NW

Washington, DC 20549-0213

202-942-9634 fax

sec.gov
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Laws Affecting Your Personal Financial 

Privacy

Two federal laws cover different aspects of how 

companies can share your financial information: the 

Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) and the GrammLeach-Bliley Act (GLBA).

Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA)

The FCRA protects the privacy of certain information 

distributed by consumer reporting companies, which 

gather and sell information about you, like where 

you live, how you pay your bills, and whether you’ve 

been sued or arrested, or have filed for bankruptcy. 

Under the law, consumer reporting companies 

can release your information only to third parties 

that have a permissible purpose to obtain it, like 

creditors, insurers, employers, and other businesses 

that use it to evaluate your applications for credit, 

insurance, employment, or renting a home. When 

a financial company gets your credit report, it may 

want to share that information with an affiliate — a 

company that owns your financial company, that 

your financial company owns, or that is part of the 

same parent organization or corporate family. Under 

the FCRA, however, if the financial company plans 

to share certain information — for example, from 

your credit report or your credit application — with 

its affiliates, it will usually first notify you and give 

you an opportunity to opt out. This notice is likely 

to be included in the privacy notice you get from the 

financial company under the GLBA.
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Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLBA)

Under the GLBA, financial companies must tell you 

about their policies regarding the privacy of your 

personal financial information. With some exceptions, 

the law limits the ability of financial companies to 

share your personal financial information with certain 

non-affiliates without first notifying you about the 

sharing and providing you with an opportunity to optout. A non-affiliate is a company that is unrelated to 

your financial company.

Under the GLBA, your financial company can provide 

your personal financial information to certain nonaffiliated companies, including service providers and 

joint marketers — companies that have an agreement 

with your financial company to offer you other 

financial products or services — without providing 

you with an opportunity to opt out. But before it 

shares your information with other third-party nonaffiliates, your financial company must tell you about 

its information sharing practices and give you the 

opportunity to opt out.
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For More Information

To learn more about credit-related issues, visit 

MyMoney.gov, the U.S. government’s portal to 

financial education.

The FTC works to prevent fraudulent, deceptive 

and unfair business practices in the marketplace 

and to provide information to help consumers spot, 

stop and avoid them. To file a complaint or get free 

information on consumer issues, visit ftc.gov or call 

toll-free, 1-877-FTC-HELP (1-877-382-4357); TTY: 

1-866-653-4261.

Watch a video, How to File a Complaint, at 

consumer.ftc.gov/media to learn more. The FTC 

enters consumer complaints into the Consumer 

Sentinel Network, a secure online database and 

investigative tool used by hundreds of civil and 

criminal law enforcement agencies in the U.S. 

and abroad.

Federal Trade Commission

consumer.ftc.gov

September 2012