Editorial: Increase privacy rights

As part of an overall bill that would permit banks, securities firms and insurance companies to merge, the House voted Thursday to give consumers the right to stop banks and other financial companies from sharing the data they have on individuals with outside companies. While this is certainly better than nothing, the fact remains the privacy protections in this legislation are inadequate, because banks and other financial firms that are affiliated with each other will be allowed to share personal information.

The House Commerce Committee earlier had recommended a ban on sharing sensitive consumer information among affiliated companies, but the finance industries were upset by this. So the GOP majority agreed to rewrite the legislation, allowing the financial companies to share the sensitive information with related companies under the same corporate parent. In addition, the legislation also lets health insurers share medical information with life insurance companies when consumers apply to get life insurance policies.

Democrats understandably were unhappy with these provisions that weakened the chance to pass strong privacy protections. So Democrats sought a vote to derail the overall legislation, but this lost on a party-line vote. There is no reason why financial service companies or insurers should be sharing our medical records or other sensitive information -- even with affiliated firms. Along with medical records, some of the information that can now be shared with affiliated companies includes: addresses, phone numbers, birth dates, Social Security numbers and checking and credit card account information.

Now the legislation must go to a conference committee of the House and Senate to iron out the differences between the two bills. It is hoped that the legislation is strengthened so even affiliated companies won't be allowed to share such sensitive data. It's easy to understand why -- for business reasons -- different financial institutions under the same parent company want to share this information, but the fact remains it is still an unwarranted invasion of privacy. If these companies want to share this information, then they should get the consent of the consumer first. Preserving privacy rights is being talked about increasingly in Washington, but last week's vote in the House shows that Congress still hasn't caught up to the concerns Americans have regarding this fundamental issue.

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