Politech: FC: North Dakota voters approve "opt-in" for financial information

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

[Naturally everyone should be entitled as a matter of right and logic to 
take steps to protect their privacy. The debate in North Dakota is about 
what regulations aimed at businesses are necessary and appropriate. Unlike 
government agencies, businesses do not have a monopoly; at the very least, 
it means we should be more wary of regulations. It also means we should 
weigh the total costs of the regulations against their benefits, consider 
whether this is a good precedent to set, and so on. I remain suspicious 
about broad "we must protect privacy at all costs claims." I can imagine 
voters approving a bill virtually muzzling credit reporting firms, for 
instance, on privacy grounds -- and then complaining bitterly when the 
unintended consequence is to deny Americans credit cards and home 
mortgages. See also: 
http://www.state.nd.us/sec/pdf/referredmeasureno2ballotlang2002.pdf --Declan]
---

Date: Wed, 12 Jun 2002 20:29:06 -0400
To: Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>
From: BSteinhardt <BSteinhardt () aclu org>
Subject: Financial Privacy Victory in North Dakota

Declan,

I know you are likely to have a different view, but the privacy community 
earned a rather remarkable victory in North Dakota yesterday, when better 
than 70% of the electorate voted to reinstate the nation's strongest state 
financial privacy law. North Dakota law once again requires that bank 
customers give permission (opt-in) before their sensitive financial 
information can be sold. This despite the fact that our pro-privacy 
coalition was outspent , at least, 6 to 1 by the banks.
Here is an excerpt from the ACLU statement. The full statement is available 
at http://www.aclu.org/news/2002/n061202a.html
Barry Steinhardt

NEW YORK--The American Civil Liberties Union today congratulated the people 
of North Dakota for defending their privacy by rejecting a ballot measure 
that would have allowed banks to share customers' information without their 
permission.
"This vote was a stunning defeat for the powerful financial companies who 
were trying to bamboozle the citizens of North Dakota into acting against 
their own interests," said Jennifer Ring, Executive Director of the ACLU of 
the Dakotas. ...
"The results in North Dakota are significant not just in that state but 
nationally," said Barry Steinhardt, Director of the ACLU's Technology and 
Liberty Program. "If the voters in a small midwestern state vote for 
privacy by more than a three-to-one margin despite an intense media 
campaign urging them not to, then politicians in Washington and Sacramento 
and Albany ought to be listening."
'''''
The pro-privacy campaign was waged by a group of citizen-volunteers led by 
Charlene Nelson, a homemaker and mother of three working out of her home in 
Casselton. Until a last-minute $25,000 contribution by the ACLU for radio 
ads, the privacy forces had reported donations of just $2,450



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