It's Not Fair

by Barbara E. Hurst, Editor

I just accessed the www.BankersOnline.com web page, put in the word "privacy" to search, and came up with over 300 related articles we have posted on the subject.

The banking industry is suffering overkill on the matter of privacy

This writer finds it annoying that no one objects to the supermarket tracking every penny you spend there. Almost everyone has a supermarket card that entitles them to an additional discount, or some such incentive, and it seems to bother no one that when the card is used, records are created on whether or not you bought dog food, what kind you bought, how often you bought it - or to whom that information is reported. Is it just a coincidence that you start to get dog food coupons through the mail, with an enclosure addressed to "Dear Pet Lover..."

You'll also get little surveys through the mail connected with the card. It will ask you how many people are in your house, and what kind of coupons you'd like to have. By tracking and reviewing how much you spend for food each week, and knowing how many people reside at your address, your income can be quickly and pretty accurately estimated.

You are not given the opportunity to get your discount at the supermarket, and at the same time "opt-out" of having your information recorded and shared or sold.

How about prescriptions? Does it bother you that when you buy drugs, the information about what you are taking, how often, and what you are taking it for is sold to companies for marketing purposes? I take a low dose of high blood pressure medicine called Prinival, a prescription-only medication that I have filled at one of our local chain drug stores. A couple of weeks ago I received a letter, addressed to me personally, from a major mail order drug company informing me that they noted "...that your prescription for Prinival is about to run out. We wanted to let you know that if you send your prescription to us, we can accommodate you by saving you time and money..."

I wasn't asked if it was OK with me to have this information marketed to outside parties. What if I was on a medication that would affect the results of a job application if it became known I was taking it? Who or what governs the information the drug store is selling?

But the banking industry is paying the price of trying to share information with affiliated parties for the purpose of, in many cases, helping our depositors save money, or get a better deal than they would get otherwise. We get the customer complaints, the letters, the protests, the headlines, the congressional hearings, the regulations, and the bad press.

Just doesn't seem fair, does it?

I know, I know - nobody said life was fair!

Copyright © 2000 Bankers' Hotline. Originally appeared in Bankers' Hotline, Vol. 10, No. 12, 12/00