Regarding: Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act Privacy Rule 16 CFR Part 313-Comment  Federal Reserve Board Docket No R-1058  Office of Thrift Supervision Docket No 2000-13

To Whom It May Concern:

I am writing to express my concern with the proposed regulations to implement Title V of the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act of 1999. As a business professional and small business person, I fear we would lose a valuable and very necessary source of locating individuals if "non-public personal information" is defined to include simple names and addresses of customers of financial institutions.

It was my impression that the clear intent of Congress was to  provide an opportunity for customers of financial institutions to "opt-out" of sharing their personal financial information with non-affiliates of the institutions. The statute provides protection for financial information--not mere names and addresses. If all information available to a financial institution is defined as "non-public personal information," then what is "public"? Congress seemed to be offering a distinction by describing financial information. I believe the Act provides opt-out of information regarding credit history, employment and financial assets. But name, address and phone number should not be classified as "non-public."

Credit bureaus have the most current name and address file available because consumers update their addresses with their credit card companies and other lenders when they move. That information is provided to credit bureaus on a regular basis. The information has the following uses:

a. "Header data," as found on consumer reports is used to update addresses on mailing lists by the direct marketing industry.

 

b. Law enforcement agencies use it to locate suspects, witnesses, and dead beat parents.

 

c. The IRS uses it for returned mail, or to verify social security numbers.

 

d. Mutual Funds use it to locate lost shareholders.

 

e. Banks use it to verify addresses when opening checking accounts.

 

f. The internet economy will thrive if new companies can locate customers through direct mail and invite them to visit their web site. Start up electronic commerce companies cannot afford mass marketing, they cannot afford commercials on the Super Bowl, so they will need direct marketing to locate customers and be able to compete.

 

g. As the mass media becomes more diversified, and less "mass," as fewer consumers read general circulation magazines and newspapers, mass marketing becomes less effective and individualized direct marketing becomes more essential.

 

h. Digital certificates used to assure security on the web will require means to verify addresses.

Prior to the use of header data from consumer reporting agencies, the best available source of names and addresses was the telephone directory. If Regulation P prohibits the use of header data, all of the above industries and government agencies will be forced to return to the phone book for names and addresses and the emerging internet economy will be crippled.

Account information, which includes names and addresses, is given to credit bureaus by financial institutions, under an exception in the Act, that does not subject the information to the notice and opt-out requirement. A general exception that the Act is not to impact the operation of the Fair Credit Reporting Act permits credit bureaus to disclose credit eligibility information as permitted by that Act. However, header data is not governed by FCRA since it is not eligibility information. It is not governed by the Banking Reform Act because it is not personally identifiable financial information. But now, it is governed by the Regulations, because they ignore the well crafted definitions in the Act. As a result, if the Regulations stand, header data cannot be used for internet or other verification, location, law enforcement, fraud prevention, address correction, or any of the other purposes listed above.

Therefore, it is imperative that the Regulators take into account Congressional intent, using rules of statutory construction, and define the terms in accordance with ordinary understanding of their meaning, thereby protecting personal financial information, as the statute envisions.

If this information is deemed "non-public personal," only  wrongdoers and criminals will benefit and the law-abiding consumer will be the loser.

I urge you to define non-public personal information in the  manner that Congress intended.

Yours truly,

James William Starks