IP: Financial Privacy Victory in North Dakota

[Dave Farber <dave () farber net>]

------ Forwarded Message
From: BSteinhardt <BSteinhardt () aclu org>
Date: Wed, 12 Jun 2002 20:24:48 -0400
To: Dave Farber <farber () cis upenn edu>
Subject: Financial Privacy Victory in North Dakota

Dave,

We 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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