We are independent & ad-supported. We may earn a commission for purchases made through our links.
WiseGEEK

Advertiser Disclosure

Our website is an independent, advertising-supported platform. We provide our content free of charge to our readers, and to keep it that way, we rely on revenue generated through advertisements and affiliate partnerships. This means that when you click on certain links on our site and make a purchase, we may earn a commission. Learn more.

How We Make Money

We sustain our operations through affiliate commissions and advertising. If you click on an affiliate link and make a purchase, we may receive a commission from the merchant at no additional cost to you. We also display advertisements on our website, which help generate revenue to support our work and keep our content free for readers. Our editorial team operates independently from our advertising and affiliate partnerships to ensure that our content remains unbiased and focused on providing you with the best information and recommendations based on thorough research and honest evaluations. To remain transparent, we’ve provided a list of our current affiliate partners here.
Finance

What is Financial Privacy?

Diane Goettel
By
Updated May 17, 2024
Our promise to you
WiseGEEK is dedicated to creating trustworthy, high-quality content that always prioritizes transparency, integrity, and inclusivity above all else. Our ensure that our content creation and review process includes rigorous fact-checking, evidence-based, and continual updates to ensure accuracy and reliability.

Our Promise to you

Founded in 2002, our company has been a trusted resource for readers seeking informative and engaging content. Our dedication to quality remains unwavering—and will never change. We follow a strict editorial policy, ensuring that our content is authored by highly qualified professionals and edited by subject matter experts. This guarantees that everything we publish is objective, accurate, and trustworthy.

Over the years, we've refined our approach to cover a wide range of topics, providing readers with reliable and practical advice to enhance their knowledge and skills. That's why millions of readers turn to us each year. Join us in celebrating the joy of learning, guided by standards you can trust.

Editorial Standards

At WiseGEEK, we are committed to creating content that you can trust. Our editorial process is designed to ensure that every piece of content we publish is accurate, reliable, and informative.

Our team of experienced writers and editors follows a strict set of guidelines to ensure the highest quality content. We conduct thorough research, fact-check all information, and rely on credible sources to back up our claims. Our content is reviewed by subject matter experts to ensure accuracy and clarity.

We believe in transparency and maintain editorial independence from our advertisers. Our team does not receive direct compensation from advertisers, allowing us to create unbiased content that prioritizes your interests.

Financial privacy is a blanket term used to describe a set of protections and rights that are offered to customers of financial institutions. In the United States, these protections and rights are largely defined by the Right to Financial Privacy Act of 1978. This act requires a government agency seeking a person's financial information to notify the person of these actions. The act also requires the agency to give the person in question a chance to object to this action. Financial privacy is also often used in discussions surrounding whether banks and other financial institutions should be able to sell information about their customers.

In the United states, the Right to Financial Privacy Act was amended twice: once in the 1980s and once by by the Patriot Act of 2001. The Patriot Act allowed government agencies to access personal financial records as part of investigations related to international terrorism. Most amendments to this act have to do with allowing government agencies swift access to such records in the instances of criminal investigations.

Another United States act that is closely related to the issue of financial privacy is the The Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, which is also known as the Financial Services Modernization Act of 1999. As part of this act, financial institutions are requires to provide every customer with a privacy notice. In addition to providing this notice when a person becomes a customer of the financial institution, the notice must also be provided on a yearly basis for as long as the person is a customer of the financial institution. The information in this notice must include what pieces of information the financial institution gathers about the person as well as how the information is used and shared. It is also required that the financial institution inform the person of how this information is protected. In every case, the person must be provided with an opportunity to stop the financial institution from sharing this information.

For many people, financial privacy has become an important issue because of a regular household nuisance: telemarketers. There have been a number of cases in which financial institutions have shared information about their customers with telemarketing companies. The companies then use the information as sales leads. By using the financial information provided by the banks, telemarketing companies could target their sales efforts toward certain groups of the financial institution's customers.

WiseGEEK is dedicated to providing accurate and trustworthy information. We carefully select reputable sources and employ a rigorous fact-checking process to maintain the highest standards. To learn more about our commitment to accuracy, read our editorial process.
Diane Goettel
By Diane Goettel
In addition to her work as a freelance writer for WiseGEEK, Diane Goettel serves as the executive editor of Black Lawrence Press, an independent publishing company based in upstate New York. Over the course, she has edited several anthologies, the e-newsletter “Sapling,” and The Adirondack Review. Diane holds a B.A. from Sarah Lawrence College and an M.A. from Brooklyn College.
See our Editorial Process Share Feedback

Related Articles

Discussion Comments

Diane Goettel

Diane Goettel

In addition to her work as a freelance writer for WiseGEEK, Diane Goettel serves as the executive editor of Black...
Read more
WiseGEEK, in your inbox

Our latest articles, guides, and more, delivered daily.

WiseGEEK, in your inbox

Our latest articles, guides, and more, delivered daily.