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North Dakotans Vote to Tighten Privacy for Bank Customers By Dale Wetzel Associated Press Writer BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) - North Dakota residents voted overwhelmingly to repeal a state law that let banks sell customer information without written permission. The vote may portend a move toward stricter financial privacy laws elsewhere, advocates said Wednesday. "Politically, this is a shot that is going to be heard around the world," said Evan Hendricks, publisher of Privacy Times, a Washington, D.C., newsletter. The state law was patterned after a federal financial privacy measure, approved by Congress three years ago. Tuesday's vote was the first time voters in any state have rendered a judgment on financial privacy. North Dakota had required express written permission until last year, when the new law was passed, still requiring financial institutions to notify customers if they planned to sell information, but leaving it up to the customers to object if they didn't want the information released. After the repeal movement started, financial interests spent more than $135,000 promoting the law and running ads implying that a vote to repeal would mean economic isolation for a rural state that already has problems creating jobs. The banks and credit unions had argued that the law was needed to promote financial services jobs and said they weren't selling customer information to outside companies. But proponents of repealing the law said the banks must have wanted to profit from the information or they wouldn't have pushed so hard. Unofficial vote totals Wednesday showed 86,688 voters, or 73 percent, favored repealing the North Dakota law, while 27 percent, or 31,471 voters, supported keeping it. Gov. John Hoeven, a former banker who opposed repealing the law, said state officials will have to measure the vote's impact. "The people have spoken, and I absolutely respect their decision," Hoeven said. "From a regulatory standpoint, it is just something we will have to deal with." Beth Givens, director of the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, an organization based in San Diego, said the effects of the North Dakota vote could ripple to other states and Congress. "It sends an encouraging message to other citizen organizers and consumer advocates around the country, now that the people of North Dakota have so resoundingly spoken their mind," she said. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, any copyrighted work in this message is distributed under fair use without profit or payment for non-profit research and educational purposes only. [Ref. http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml]
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