For companies like Citigroup, that means sending out tons of mail. Despite the size of the effort to notify consumers, no one, it seems, is entirely happy with the notices. Financial services companies and their supporters in Congress say the notices cost the companies too much. Privacy advocates say the notices provide too little. In a Congressional hearing about consumer privacy last month, lawmakers expressed amazement at Mr. Fisher's estimate of a billion mailed notices and 25 separate notices per household.
Most people are worried about their car starting in the morning.
That's not going to be something they look at too carefully. Critics say the sharing of data with third parties is not the only concern. As previously independent companies join under the same corporate umbrella the kinds of financial services conglomerates that 1999 act will help to create the sharing of data internally could be a more potent issue. I'm going to be real shocked if the average American sits down and reads and compares 25 of them. I don't, and I've got a morbid curiosity that leads me to do that.