Wednesday, Oct. 20, 2021 | 2 a.m.
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I read with mixed feelings the Oct. 13 article “Biden’s IRS proposal rankles banks and their customers.”
As a consumer, I can appreciate the added annoyance of having data released to yet another agency (and of potential complications of having tax data double-checked). However, this annoyance has been an annual occurrence, as every bank I have used sends me a long “privacy policy” disclosure letter.
Banks vigorously defend their right to release my private financial data to a long list of business affiliates, marketing partnerships, consumer credit agencies and legal entities. It is hard to envision a reasonable bank privacy law that permits so many marketing and legal disclosures “for financial and marketing purposes” while excluding the IRS. I doubt the IRS represents a greater privacy risk than the unspecified “marketing partners” (whose endless credit card offers are a serious identity theft risk).
It seems hypocritical for banks to suddenly object to sharing financial data for the purposes of collecting debts. Are they willing to stop releasing this data to private billing agencies and marketing partners along with blocking the IRS, or do they consider one a greater privacy risk than the other?
I don’t love all the personal data sharing, but why would the IRS be classified in the same category as groups already receiving my data “for purposes of debt collection”? Any action for or against data release should apply equally to all potential creditors and business associates to avoid prejudice of singling out government collection.
