Testimony of Beth Givens, Director

Assembly Banking and Finance Committee
Assembly Bill 1707, Assemblymember Sheila Kuehl

Submitted to the following agencies:

U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency
Federal Trade Commission
Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation
Federal Reserve Board
Office of Thrift Supervision
 

The Privacy Rights Clearinghouse is a nonprofit consumer information and advocacy program, established in 1992. We are affiliated with the Utility Consumers' Action Network (UCAN), a non-profit consumer advocacy group established in 1984 and based in San Diego, California.

Members of the California State Legislature
State Capitol
Sacramento, CA 95814

Dear Senators and Assemblymembers:

The undersigned organizations urge your support of legislation giving customers of financial institutions stronger rights of privacy over their customer information.

Outline of remarks by Beth Givens, Director
U.S. Dept. of Treasury
Washington, D.C.
National Summit on Identity Theft
Panel on Prevention
March 15-16, 2000

March 2000

[Excerpted from Report of the "New York Senate Majority Task Force on the Invasion of Privacy," pages 12-13 March 2000, www.senate.state.ny.us]

I've never looked through a keyhole without finding someone was looking back.
--Judy Garland (1967) US actress, singer

Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation
Attention: Privacy-P, Room G-322A
U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services
Hubert H. Humphrey Building
200 Independence Ave. SW
Washington, DC 20201

Sent Via Overnight Delivery

Re: Comments on Proposed Federal Rule for Privacy of Individually Identifiable Health Information -- RIN 0991-AB08

Dear Assistant Secretary:

Opening Presentation by Beth Givens
Santa Clara University, Symposium on Internet Privacy
Computer and High Technology Law Journal
February 11-12, 2000

Thank you for the opportunity to participate in this symposium on Internet Privacy. I am honored be here and to speak on consumers' expectations of privacy protection on the Net.

Note: The following letters were written by a customer of the Rite Aid Pharmacy about its marketing practices. They were shared with the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse and permission was granted to post them here. Rite Aid has recently been the subject of several media reports about its aggressive marketing of pharmaceutical products and other consumer-unfriendly practices, including selling date-sensitive products well past the due dates. Rite-Aid is the largest pharmacy chain in California.

The following are the comments of the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse for the May 1999 "Georgetown Internet Privacy Policy Survey." A similar survey was conducted in 1998 by the Federal Trade Commission. Survey results can be found at the web site of the study's director, Prof. Mary Culnan, of the School of Business at Georgetown University.
http://www.msb.edu/faculty/culnanm/gippshome.html

I am one of Bari Nessel's victims. Along with my identity she took my trust in people, especially employers, she stole my sense of security and financial safety, and she took my ability to get credit cards, loans or purchase a major ticket item without going through hours of red tape, only to possibly have my purchase or credit request rejected.