-Caveat Lector- ------- Forwarded Message Follows ------- Date sent: Thu, 29 Jul 1999 01:45:17 -0700 From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Release: California bank spying To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Libertarian Party announcements list) Send reply to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- ======================================= NEWS FROM THE LIBERTARIAN PARTY 2600 Virginia Avenue, NW, Suite 100 Washington DC 20037 World Wide Web: http://www.lp.org/ ======================================= For release: July 29, 1999 ======================================= For additional information: George Getz, Press Secretary Phone: (202) 333-0008 Ext. 222 E-Mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ======================================= Have YOUR bank records been turned over to the prying eyes of bureaucrats? WASHINGTON, DC -- Hundreds of banks around the USA have started turning their complete customer database -- including Social Security numbers and account balances -- over to government agencies to comply with federal child support laws, the Libertarian Party warned today. "Politicians are now using the Deadbeat Dads law to violate your financial privacy -- even if you've never had children," said Steve Dasbach, national director of the Libertarian Party. "And if that's not bad enough, the law also prohibits your bank from notifying you that your account information has been turned over to the prying eyes of bureaucrats." The Financial Institution Data Match program, an outgrowth of the 1996 Deadbeat Dads law, requires banks to search their databases every three months for matches against state-provided lists of parents who have fallen behind in child support payments. But banks without the resources to comply have been forced to turn their entire customer database over to state agencies -- and allow government bureaucrats to do the searches instead. The result, according to the Los Angeles Times, is that 197 banks, credit unions, and life insurance companies in California are turning over their entire customer database to the State Franchise Tax Board, which combs through every customer's account to determine who's in arrears on child support. Many other states have similar programs. "Without your knowledge or permission, government bureaucrats can get access to your most private financial information," said Dasbach. "In the name of catching a few guilty people, the privacy of millions of innocent people is violated." Perversely, those innocent people may have the most to fear when their state adopts the Financial Institution Data Match program, Dasbach warned. For example, California government officials have already: * Seized the bank accounts of innocent people. "An investigation last fall discovered the Los Angeles County district attorney's office had seized the bank accounts of dozens of men who were later determined not to be the fathers of the children in question," said Dasbach. "Incredibly, politicians who enacted the Financial Institution Data Match program made it almost impossible to protect yourself from false seizures, because it's illegal for your bank to tell you that it has forwarded your account information to the state. The only thing that's private is the government's power to snoop on you." * Tried to sell millions of individual bank account records to private companies. "In June, the California Employment Department was forced to back down after the public discovered its scheme to sell salary data on 14 million residents," noted Dasbach. "As long as politicians have access to this information, it's only a matter of time before their greed overcomes them, and they sell it to the highest bidder. And if your bank records are put up for sale, everyone from prospective employers to creditors to private individuals could learn every detail of your family's financial habits." * Jailed innocent people. "Last fall, an innocent California man was imprisoned for 26 hours before it was discovered that he had the same name as a man sought for back child support," said Dasbach. "Only the government would claim it is protecting children by destroying their parents' privacy, seizing their bank accounts, and hauling them off to jail. If politicians really care about protecting children, let them prove it by abolishing the Deadbeat Dads law -- and getting out of the bank spying business entirely." -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6.2 iQCVAwUBN6AUYdCSe1KnQG7RAQF57AP/SwQQ8AJjxL2E3HKF5mdOWCD5LqOHjqxC qN8IqDfdsN2Acc8BbKUFtrhmY3zCUB8LbteAcdcFnyIpy4Bvot8TZ5dmq/X25HrV y90xhgZj5mFBGglG/x9A6ieNDrr7z7ihi7KAiuSrchjqMb/R70ttHSuEmqOSITj2 ZEnMGtU7zTc= =V4hq -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- The Libertarian Party http://www.lp.org/ 2600 Virginia Ave. NW, Suite 100 voice: 202-333-0008 Washington DC 20037 fax: 202-333-0072 For subscription changes, please mail to <announce- [EMAIL PROTECTED]> with the word "subscribe" or "unsubscribe" in the subject line -- or use the WWW form. A<>E<>R ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The only real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes. -Marcel Proust + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + "Believe nothing, no matter where you read it, or who said it, no matter if I have said it, unless it agrees with your own reason and your common sense." --Buddha + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + A merely fallen enemy may rise again, but the reconciled one is truly vanquished. -Johann Christoph Schiller, German Writer (1759-1805) + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + It is preoccupation with possessions, more than anything else, that prevents us from living freely and nobly. -Bertrand Russell + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + "Everyone has the right...to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers." 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