Chase Doesn’t Care about Your Privacy, but at Least They’re Honest About It

I just received my “2009 Chase Privacy Policy” via email, this is a welcome change because normally it comes via snail mail in a small tri-fold brochure full of legalese small print.  The email was easy to read and understand.  That’s where the good news ends.

The Policy basically says that Chase shares your information with everyone under the sun and that you have the right to opt out of some of it, but that if they can find any possible way to legally squirm out of your opt out they will.  “Sure,” Chase seems to be saying, “you can opt out, but you can be sure as hell it won’t work–we’ll still share info with whoever we please.”

Check out the relevant points in the Policy below:

CHASE PRIVACY POLICY

This Policy explains what Chase does to keep information about you private and secure. We want you to know how we manage that information to serve you and that you have choices about how it is shared. This Policy covers our family of companies, a partial list of which is contained at the end of this Policy. Please read this Policy carefully.

Q. What information do you have about me?
A. To provide services and to help meet your needs, we collect information about you from various sources.

• We get information from your requests for our products or services. One example is income on loan applications.
• We get information about your transactions with us and with others. For example, we have your account balance information.
• We get information, such as your credit history, from credit bureaus.

Q. How do you safeguard information about me?
A. We take a number of steps to protect the privacy of information about you. Here are some examples:

• We keep information under physical, electronic or procedural controls that comply with or exceed governmental standards.
• We authorize our employees, agents and contractors to get information about you only when they need it to do their work for us.
• We require companies working for us to protect information. They agree to use it only to provide the services we ask them to perform for us.

Q. Is information about me shared within your family of companies?
A. Yes. We may share information about you within our family as required or permitted by law. This helps us to offer you financial products and services, such as loans, deposits, investments, credit cards and insurance.

Q. Is information about me shared with service providers and financial companies outside your family of companies?
A. Yes, as permitted by law. We may share information about you with outside companies that work for us. These may include firms that assist in marketing our products. We may also share information about you with outside financial companies that have joint marketing agreements with us. These arrangements give you the opportunity to receive additional products or services.

Q. Is information about me shared with non-financial companies outside your family of companies?
A. Yes. We may share information about you with companies outside of our family as permitted by law, including retailers, auto dealers, auto makers, direct marketers, membership clubs and publishers.

Q. Is information about me shared in any other ways?
A. Yes. We may also share information about you in other ways, as required or permitted by law. Here are some examples of ways that we share information.

• To protect against fraud.
• To respond to a subpoena.
• To service your account.
• To report to a credit bureau.
• With your consent.

Q. What choices do I have about information sharing and use?
A. We offer you the following three choices about sharing information that identifies you:
Choice #1. Third party sharing: You may tell us not to share information about you with non-financial companies outside of our family of companies. Even if you do tell us not to share, we may do so as required or permitted by law. Also if you have authorized us to share information in connection with a particular product or service, we will continue to share information about you in connection with that product or service. For example, you might have a credit card with one of our airline, retail or university partners that offers rewards programs.

and

Choice #2. Affiliate sharing: You may tell us not to share the following information about you within our family of companies:
Information from your applications to be used to determine your eligibility, such as your income.
Information from consumer credit reports, such as your credit history.
Information from sources used to verify information you provide us, such as outstanding loans or employment history.

Even if you do tell us not to share, we may share other types of information within our family. For example, we may share name and address, information about transactions or balances with us, as well as survey results.

and

Choice #3. Affiliate marketing: You may tell us to limit our family of companies, such as our credit card, auto finance and securities affiliates, from marketing their products and services to you if you do not have an account or business relationship with them. These marketing offers are based on your personal information that our affiliate receives from another Chase company; this information includes your income, your account history with us and your credit history with us. Your choice to limit these marketing offers will apply for five years from when you tell us your choice. After five years, you will receive a renewal notice from us that will allow you to continue to limit our affiliate marketing.

—————————–

This could have been a lot shorter, don’t you think? They could have written: “you can tell us not to share, but you know what?  Fuck you, we’re gonna do it anyway.  Sincerely, Chase.”

Tags: banking, Chase, corporations, privacy