Does the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (The GLB ACT) affect the operations of your company?
The GLB Act seeks to protect disclosure of non-public personal information about individuals to non-affiliated third parties. Such information includes names, addresses, dates of birth, social security numbers, etc. If the GLB Act applies, your company is required to give notice of its privacy policy, by July 1, 2001, to customers who have provided individual non-public personal information. In addition, your company is required to annually provide notice of its privacy policy to these customers. The GLB Act is intended to apply to banks, thrifts, credit unions and other "Financial Institutions". The term "Financial Institutions" is very broadly defined under the act. The broad definition of "Financial Institutions" may result in the GLB Act applying to your business. "Financial Institutions" under the GLB Act include those companies that are deemed to be a "lender".
DOES THE GLB ACT APPLY TO YOUR BUSINESS?
Do you regularly obtain non-public personal information about individuals? Do you extend payment terms and charge an interest component? If the answer is yes, then it is quite possible that your company may be defined as a "lender" under the GLB Act. The GLB Act does not specify how often this has to occur before your company will be deemed a lender. If you do so on rare occasions, you are probably not a "lender" subject to the GLB Act. However, if it is a normal part of the business to extend payment terms and charge interest, you may be deemed a lending institution subject to the GLB Act. The GLB Act is unlikely to apply to a situation where the interest is only charged upon the event of a default of the payment terms. However, the closer an agreement looks to be a loan of any kind, the more likely it is that the GLB Act applies to the information obtained in the transaction.
WHAT SHOULD YOUR COMPANY DO?
Even if you do not disclose to third parties the nonpublic personal information you obtain from customers, the safest route is to establish a Privacy Policy and provide a copy of it to your customers by July 1, 2001 and annually thereafter. Whether you actually fall under the Act or not, you can establish a privacy policy, prepare a Federal Privacy Disclosure Form, and send a copy of it to all of your customers. You may be able to utilize it as a marketing tool. The privacy policy will need to advise your customers of their right to "Opt Out" of your disclosure of information to third parties. Please contact us if we can help you create and effectuate a proper Privacy Policy to comply with the GLB Act.
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The above is not meant to replace legal counsel. If you'd like to speak to one of Gross & Romanick's attorneys please contact us by calling 703-273-1400 or by filling out our online Information Request form.
