Source: https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2003/12/30/03-31992/interagency-proposal-to-consider-alternative-forms-of-privacy-notices-under-the-gramm-leach-bliley
Timestamp: 2017-09-23 07:54:18
Document Index: 159830070

Matched Legal Cases: ['art 40', 'art 216', 'art 332', 'art 573', 'art 716', 'art 313', 'art 160', 'art 248', 'art 4', 'art 505', 'art 261', 'art 309', 'art 200']

Federal Register :: Interagency Proposal to Consider Alternative Forms of Privacy Notices Under the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act
A Proposed Rule by the Comptroller of the Currency, the Federal Reserve System, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the Thrift Supervision Office, the National Credit Union Administration, the Federal Trade Commission, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, and the Securities and Exchange Commission on 12/30/2003
Comments must be submitted on or before March 29, 2004.
75164-75174 (11 pages)
Docket No. 2003-62
Release Nos. 34-48966, IA-2206, IC-26316
File No. S7-30-03
1550-AB86
03-31992
https://www.federalregister.gov/d/03-31992 https://www.federalregister.gov/d/03-31992
Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, Treasury (OCC); Office of Thrift Supervision, Treasury (OTS); Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (Board); Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC); National Credit Union Administration (NCUA); Federal Trade Commission (FTC); Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC); and Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
The OCC, OTS, Board, FDIC, NCUA, FTC, CFTC, and SEC (the Agencies) are requesting comment on whether the Agencies should consider amending the regulations that implement sections 502 and 503 of the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLB Act) to allow or require financial institutions to provide alternative types of privacy notices, such as a short privacy notice, that would be easier for consumers to understand.
Because the Agencies will jointly review all of the comments submitted, interested parties may send comments to any of the Agencies and need not send comments (or copies) to all of the Agencies. Commenters that submit trade secrets or confidential commercial or financial information may request confidential treatment of that information in accordance with the Freedom of Information Act (5 U.S.C. 552) and the Agencies' respective regulations regarding availability of information. Because paper mail in the Washington area and at the Agencies is subject to delay, please consider submitting your comments by e-mail. Commenters are encouraged to use the title “Alternative Forms of Privacy Notices” to facilitate the organization and distribution of comments among the Agencies. Interested parties are invited to submit written comments to:
Office of the Comptroller of the Currency: Public Information Room, Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, 250 E Street, SW., Mail stop 1-5, Washington, DC 20219, Attention: Docket No. 03-27, Fax number (202) 874-4448 or Internet address: regs.comments@occ.treas.gov. Comments may be inspected and photocopied at the OCC's Public Information Room, 250 E Street, SW., Washington, DC. You can make an appointment to inspect the comments by calling (202) 874-5043.
Office of Thrift Supervision: Send comments to Regulation Comments, Chief Counsel's Office, Office of Thrift Supervision, 1700 G Street, NW., Washington, DC 20552, Attention: No. 2003-62. Delivery: Hand deliver comments to the Guard's Desk, East Lobby Entrance, 1700 G Street, NW., from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on business days, Attention: Regulation Comments, Chief Counsel's Office, Attention: No. 2003-62. Facsimiles: Send facsimile transmissions to FAX Number (202) 906-6518, Attention: No. 2003-62. E-Start Printed Page 75165Mail: Send e-mails to regs.comments@ots.treas.gov, Attention: No. 2003-62 and include your name and telephone number. Due to temporary disruptions in mail service in the Washington, DC area, commenters are encouraged to send comments by fax or e-mail, if possible. Availability of comments: OTS will post comments and the related index on the OTS Internet Site at www.ots.treas.gov. In addition, you may inspect comments at the Public Reading Room, 1700 G Street, NW., by appointment. To make an appointment for access, call (202) 906-5922, send an e-mail to public.info@ots.treas.gov, or send a facsimile transmission to (202) 906-7755. (Please identify the materials you would like to inspect to assist us in serving you.) We schedule appointments on business days between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. In most cases, appointments will be available the business day after the date we receive a request.
Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System: Comments should refer to Docket No. R-1173 and may be mailed to Ms. Jennifer J. Johnson, Secretary, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, 20th Street and Constitution Avenue, NW., Washington, DC 20551. Please consider submitting your comments by e-mail to regs.comments@federalreserve.gov, or faxing them to the Office of the Secretary at (202) 452-3819 or (202) 452-3102. Members of the public may inspect comments in Room MP-500 between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. on weekdays pursuant to section 261.12, except as provided in section 261.14, of the Board's Rules Regarding Availability of Information, 12 CFR 261.12 and 261.14.
Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation: Send written comments to Robert E. Feldman, Executive Secretary, Attention: Comments/Executive Secretary Section, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, 550 17th Street, NW., Washington, DC 20429. Comments also may be mailed electronically to comments@fdic.gov. Comments may be hand delivered to the guard station at the rear of the 17th Street building (located on F Street) on business days between 7 a.m. and 5 p.m.; Fax Number (202) 898-3838. Comments may be inspected and photocopied in the FDIC Public Information Center, Room 100, 801 17th Street, NW., Washington, DC 20429, between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. on business days.
Federal Trade Commission: Comments should refer to “Alternative Forms of Privacy Notices, Project No. P034815.” Comments filed in paper form should be mailed or delivered to: Federal Trade Commission/Office of the Secretary, Room 159-H, 600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW., Washington, DC 20580. Comments filed in electronic form (in ASCII format, WordPerfect, or Microsoft Word) should be sent to: GLBnotices@ftc.gov. If the comment contains any material for which confidential treatment is requested, it must be filed in paper (rather than electronic) form, and the first page of the document must be clearly labeled “Confidential.” [1] Regardless of the form in which they are filed, the Commission will consider all timely comments, and will make the comments available (with confidential material redacted) for public inspection and copying at the Commission's principal office and on the Commission Web site at www.ftc.gov. As a matter of discretion, the Commission makes every effort to remove home contact information for individuals from the public comments it receives before placing those comments on the FTC Web site.
Commodity Futures Trading Commission: Comments should be directed to Jean A. Webb, Secretary, Commodity Futures Trading Commission, Three Lafayette Centre, 1155 21st Street, NW., Washington, DC 20581. Comments may be sent by facsimile transmission to (202) 418-5528 or by e-mail to secretary@cftc.gov.
Securities and Exchange Commission: To help us process and review your comments more efficiently, comments should be sent by hard copy or e-mail, but not by both methods. Comments sent by hard copy should be submitted in triplicate to Jonathan G. Katz, Secretary, Securities and Exchange Commission, 450 5th Street, NW., Washington, DC 20549-0609. Comments may also be submitted electronically at the following e-mail address: rule-comments@sec.gov. All comment letters should refer to File No. S7-30-03. This file number should be included on the subject line if e-mail is used. Comment letters will be available for public inspection and copying in the Commission's Public Reference Room, 450 5th Street, NW., Washington, DC 20549. All comments received will be posted on the Commission's Internet Web site (http://www.sec.gov) and made available for public inspection and copying in the Commission's Public Reference Room, 450 Fifth Street, NW., Washington, DC 20549.[2]
Subtitle A of title V of the GLB Act, captioned Disclosure of Nonpublic Start Printed Page 75166Personal Information (codified at 15 U.S.C. 6801 et seq.), requires each financial institution to provide a notice of its privacy policies and practices to its consumer customers. In general, the privacy notices must describe a financial institution's policies and practices with respect to disclosing nonpublic personal information about a consumer to both affiliated and nonaffiliated third parties and provide a consumer a reasonable opportunity to direct the institution not to share nonpublic personal information about the consumer with nonaffiliated third parties. The privacy notice must also provide, where applicable under the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), a notice and an opportunity for a consumer to opt out of the sharing of certain information among affiliates.[3]
The Agencies have published consistent final regulations that implement the privacy provisions of the GLB Act (collectively referred to as “the privacy rule”).[4] The privacy rule requires a financial institution to include in its privacy notices specific items of information, such as the categories of nonpublic personal information that the institution collects and the categories of third parties to which the institution may disclose the information. The rule contains sample clauses that institutions may use in privacy notices. The rule does not, however, prescribe any specific format or standardized wording for these notices. Instead, institutions may design their own notices based on their individual practices provided they are consistent with the law and meet the “clear and conspicuous” standard in the rule.
To encourage and facilitate the efforts already underway, the Agencies are considering proposing amendments to the privacy rule to provide for privacy notices that are more understandable and useful to consumers. The Agencies believe that this effort could benefit significantly from the breadth and depth of experience that many institutions have gained over the past two years in designing privacy notices, as well as the expertise of communications experts and the input of consumer organizations and comments from the public. Accordingly, the Agencies seek comment on a wide range of issues associated with the format, elements, and language used in privacy notices that would make the notices more accessible, readable, and useful. The Agencies also solicit examples of forms, model clauses, and other information, such as applicable research that has been conducted in this area, that may provide concrete illustrations or evidence to assist the Agencies in considering whether and how to develop various proposals.[5]
The Agencies are considering developing a range of alternative proposals for public comment to improve the privacy notices that financial institutions must provide to consumers under the GLB Act. The primary matter the Agencies are now considering is whether to develop a model privacy notice that would be short and simple. In order to illustrate, generally, this type of short notice and to spur specific suggestions for additional ideas that the Agencies should consider, a few of the potential alternative approaches are summarized below. These alternatives are also intended to help frame a number of important questions beyond the design of a short notice, such as whether all financial institutions should be required to use the same form of notice and whether a short notice could be a substitute for or should be a supplement to a longer, more detailed notice. The sample notices included in the appendices do not reflect a determination by the Agencies that any of these notices would be satisfactory under the privacy rule or for any particular financial institution. The Agencies note that these alternatives have not been developed as a result of specific research or consumer testing and are not being proposed for Start Printed Page 75167adoption. The Agencies specifically invite suggestions for other approaches to improve the readability and usefulness of privacy notices as set out in section III.
The Agencies have identified the following approaches to simplify the privacy notices for consideration by commenters. One approach would be for the Agencies to develop a specific format and standardized language for a short notice that highlights key elements of an institution's privacy policy. For instance, a short notice could describe the types of nonpublic personal information an institution collects, the institution's policies for sharing that information with third parties, and a description of how consumers can opt out of information sharing. Like a nutrition label, a standardized notice would permit consumers easily to compare these elements of the privacy policies of different institutions and to become familiar with the standardized format and text. This type of form could include a description of how the consumer could obtain a longer, detailed privacy notice or be provided in combination with a longer, detailed privacy notice. An example illustrating this kind of format and language for a short notice appears in Appendix A.
In a similar approach, the Agencies could develop a short notice with a specific format and standardized language that would be designed to address all of the relevant elements listed in the GLB Act and the privacy rule. Such a notice would permit consumers to compare all relevant elements listed under federal law of the privacy policies of different institutions. However, since information sharing practices may vary, a financial institution may need flexibility in describing the categories of affiliated and nonaffiliated parties to whom it discloses nonpublic personal information. An example illustrating this kind of format and language appears in Appendix B and the categories of parties that may be modified by a financial institution appear in brackets.
Another approach to simplifying privacy notices would involve establishing a standardized format for privacy notices, but allowing financial institutions to provide their own descriptions of their privacy policies and practices. This potential approach may simplify privacy notices and make them more accessible for consumers, yet would permit each financial institution to tailor the language in the notice to suit its own privacy policies and practices. An example of a standardized format is included in Appendix C. Alternatively, the Agencies could prescribe standardized language that a financial institution would use to design its own notice without a format specified by the privacy rule. Standardized language may facilitate comparisons among financial institutions' policies and describe key consumer rights so that consumers could become familiar with circumstances under which information about them may be disclosed to third parties.
4. Should a short privacy notice contain, at a minimum, all of the relevant elements listed in the GLB Act and the privacy rule? If not, should it include a statement advising the consumer that an institution's complete privacy policy will be provided upon request? Start Printed Page 75168
1. Are there particular “privacy” terms or words that consumers readily understand that should be included in a short notice? Should any terms or language currently used in notices be avoided?
6. Financial institutions that generally do not share information with third parties—such as those that do not have any affiliates and do not share information in a manner that is subject to a consumer's right to opt out under the FCRA or the GLB Act and do not engage in joint marketing agreements—currently may have abbreviated and simple notices. If a short notice is mandated, should the Agencies make an exception to allow these institutions to continue to use the simple, abbreviated notices they currently use? Alternatively, should the Agencies prescribe a special short notice for these institutions to use?
Dated at Washington, DC, this 2nd day of December, 2003. Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation.
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2. The FDIC and SEC do not edit personal, identifying information such as names or e-mail addresses from electronic submissions. Submit only information you wish to make publicly available.
3. 15 U.S.C. 1681a(d)(2)(A)(iii) (FCRA); 15 U.S.C. 6803(b)(4) (GLB Act).
4. 12 CFR part 40 (OCC); 12 CFR part 216 (Board); 12 CFR part 332 (FDIC); 12 CFR part 573 (OTS); 12 CFR part 716 (NCUA); 16 CFR part 313 (FTC); 17 CFR part 160 (CFTC); and 17 CFR part 248 (SEC).
5. As stated above, the Agencies will jointly review all of the comments submitted, including those comments submitted to only one agency. Commenters may request confidential treatment of any trade secrets and commercial or financial information that is privileged or confidential information provided to the Agencies in accordance with the Freedom of Information Act (5 U.S.C. 552) and the Agencies' respective regulations regarding availability of information. 12 CFR part 4, subparts B and C (OCC); 12 CFR part 505 (OTS); 12 CFR part 261, subparts A and B (Board); 12 CFR part 309 (FDIC); 12 CFR 792.29 (NCUA); 16 CFR 4.10 (FTC); 17 CFR 145.9 (Petition for Confidential Treatment) (CFTC); 17 CFR part 200, subpart D (SEC).
BILLING CODE 4810-33-P; 6210-01-P; 6714-01-P; 6720-01-P; 7535-01-P; 6750-01-P; 6351-01-P; 8010-01-P
[FR Doc. 03-31992 Filed 12-29-03; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4810-33-C; 6210-01-C; 6714-01-C; 6720-01-C; 7535-01-C; 6750-01-C; 6351-01-C; 8010-01-C