Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Washington Mutual 1; Your Privacy 0

So here's a fun fact. While scrolling through my new bank's Account Disclosure and Regulations Quick* Reference Guide, I paid special attention to the section titled "Your Privacy". Lack of, would seem more appropriate.

Have you ever wondered who gave your address to all of those pre-approved credit cards the second you seem like you've escaped the hurdle of debt? It's your bank.

Unless you call or write and explicitly ask them not to share your information with non-affiliated third parties (and affiliated third parties, I guess), they will report your transaction information to credit card, travel, and car rental companies. And I'm pretty sure it doesn't stop there.

Why is this "service" opt-out? Well, I know why. Money. But what the hell? And they sell it to you on page 13 of the disclosure agreement as if they're doing it on your behalf... to help you. This doesn't seem right. And the thing is, I support marketing. I work in marketing. My new job is as a fucking forecast trend analyst, for fuck's sake. But providing people's personal financial data to bottom dwellers hoping to capitalize on struggle, on someone's efforts to get themselves out of debt through high-interest, pre-approved credit cards? Oh, that makes me angry. Fuck that.



*75 pages of quickness.

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