| October 24, 2000 Secretary RE: Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act Privacy Safeguards Rule 16 CFR Part 313—Comment Dear Mr. Secretary: I am submitting comments on behalf of the National Council of Investigation and Security Services, Inc. The association is the nation’s leading organization representing professional licensed private investigators. The Commission has asked for comments about the scope of the safeguards rule as it would apply to customers and consumers. We believe the clear intent of Congress was that the rule should apply only to customers, not consumers generally. 15 USC 6801(b) requires the Commission to establish rules "… to insure the security and confidentiality of customer records and information". We believe that financial institutions have clearly different obligations to their customers and to consumers generally. Congress went to great pains to maintain this distinction. Congress clearly recognized the difficulty which would ensue if financial institutions were required to insure confidentiality of the far broader public. The Commission’s decision in the privacy rule to consider names and addresses "non-public personal information" will make implementation of the safeguard’s rule far more difficult, for it will require financial institutions to include far more than what any objective observer would consider "financial" information. (See comments of John Talaganis, March 9, 2000). The Commission would be well-served to revisit that issue. We appreciate the opportunity to file our comments on this important matter. We look forward to reviewing the forthcoming proposed rule. Sincerely, Eddy L. McClain |