The difficulty of being private with Citibank and Dunn and Bradstreet

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Howard Gobioff <howard.gobioff () gmail com>
Date: March 16, 2007 2:36:27 PM EDT
To: David Farber <dave () farber net>
Subject: The difficulty of being private with Citibank and Dunn and  
Bradstreet

For IP, if you think they might find it interesting:

Recently, I decided I wanted to have a few business transactions where
I handled them at arms length and remained effectively anonymous.
Certainly, anonymous with respect to any public records.

So, in order to maintain my privacy in such transactions, I consulted
various people and it seemed an LLC was the solution. As a bonus, it
provided some some liability isolation which is seldom a bad thing.

Setting up an LLC was pretty straightforward, the lawyer fills out
some forms. All the paperwork doesn't mention my name or phone number
at all with the exception of an application for an EIN (a company's
Social Security Number) which is not a public document. Even that
doesn't have my phone number.

So far, so good. I then open up a bank account at Citibank. I go in
and explain my situation. At various points on the forms, it asks for
name and phone number of whom is responsible for the accountand I'm a
bit uncomfortable. I understand the bank needs this information so I
ask how it is used. I am assured that it doesn't leave the bank.

A few days later, I get a call from Dun and Bradstreet. They present
themselves as "updating" my profile for my bank and ask a bunch of
questions. As a result, I give them a little more info on me before I
ask who they are and they say Dun and Bradstreet and keep saying they
are collecting information for my bank and insurance company. Note:
there is no insurance company associated with this account. At that
point, I tell them my bank has that information already and can call
me directly if they wish to speak with me.

Now, I am worried that this stuff is going to show up in their
database. The next day it isn't there. On the next business day, I
visit Citibank again and complain. They assure me that this is
essentially a business background check and will NOT go in the D&B
database. This  seems like a plausible story so I buy into it. Cheaper
than creating a new LLC. I explain I might have blown the check and
the banker can call me directly if he needs more information.

Fast forward five business days, there is an entry for my LLC in D&B's
database. I had a friend purchase it and it had all the contact
information I was trying hard to hide. The information that should not
be there is. D&B insists they have the right to publish this
information (If Citi is being accurate, D&B is misusing data they had
for a specific use and extending it by presenting themselves on
false/questionable pretenses.). I go talk to my banker and he finally
convinces them to delete it.

I'm a bit skeptical of the data ever disappearing promptly enough to
preserve the privacy of some imminent transactions. It may end up
costing me significant amounts of money to form another corporate
structure and finding more discrete bankers. I've lost a lot of faith
in Citibank as a result.

Moral:  Even when you actively try and be private, it is damn hard
because some corporations do not seem to value your privacy.

I


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