Industry Joins Appeal In California Privacy Debate

The FCRA amendments establish a uniform federal standard for information sharing among financial institutions, and their affiliates, and preempt state affiliate-sharing restrictions.

In July, a federal judge in Sacramento ruled that the 2003 law only established uniform privacy rules for credit reporting, and therefore did not stop California from enacting laws dealing with access to consumer financial records that exceeded federal standards.

In the decision, the court ruled that Californias more restrictive privacy law could function based on language in the 1999 Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act. The language said states could enact privacy statutes more restrictive than national standards. The judge reasoned that Californias tougher privacy law, S.B. 1, which was enacted in August 2001, was exempt.

S.B. 1 requires financial services companies to get a customers written permission before allowing a companys affiliate, with which the consumer did business, to try to market other products to that consumer.

In explaining why insurance trade groups are joining the appeal, Stephen Zielezienski, AIA vice president and associate general counsel, said, The nature of insuring risk requires insurers to be able to collect, use, release and share information among affiliated companies for a number of business purposes, including risk assessment, the provision of insurance products and services to consumers that are appropriately tailored to their individual needs, and the detection and prevention of fraud.

The federal preemption provisions, that are the subject of this appeal, provide certainty to insurers that the sharing of consumer information among affiliates cannot be restricted by state laws like Californias S.B. 1, added Victoria Fimea, ACLI senior counsel, litigation.

Reproduced from National Underwriter Edition, August 19, 2004. Copyright 2004 by The National Underwriter Company in the serial publication. All rights reserved.Copyright in this article as an independent work may be held by the author.