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Change Your Life! |
Clinton renews push for consumer privacy in banking laws |
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May 2, 2000
YPSILANTI, MAY 1 (AP) - American consumers run too many risks as they unwittingly divulge growing amounts of personal and financial information, President Bill Clinton said Sunday as he proposed reforms in the way banks, insurers and other corporations share information about their customers.
"No one should have to worry that the results of their latest physical exam could deny them a home mortgage or a credit card," Clinton said Sunday during a commencement address at Eastern Michigan University.
"A bank is not just a bank," in today's fast-changing financial services industry, Clinton said. There are downsides to the interconnected web of corporations and services that make many daily tasks easier for many consumers, Clinton said. |
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"In this information age we can't let new opportunities erode old, fundamental rights," Clinton said. "We can't let breakthroughs in technology break down the walls of privacy."
Clinton's plan would, in many cases, require a company to tell customers it was going to share sensitive consumer information such as medical and insurance records, or lists of what people buy and where they buy it.
Clinton would also give consumers the option not to have that information shared, and give consumers a new right to review their credit reports for errors.
The plan, which stands little chance of passage in Congress this election year, includes protections Clinton supported in the past and which he said were lacking in banking reforms passed last year after more than a decade of wrangling.
The banking law, which Clinton signed in November, makes it easier for financial firms to merge and use economies of scale to lower costs on products such as checking accounts, insurance policies and brokerage services.
But critics, including much of the financial services industry and some congressional Republicans, say Clinton's new proposal undermines last year's legislation.
Opponents said adding additional consumer controls would prevent securities, banking and insurance firms from creating less expensive financial services for customers.
The White House labeled the new proposals a Clinton-Gore plan, and the vice president hopes to make a campaign issue of further consumer protection in the fast-changing world of financial information. Republican presidential nominee George W. Bush has not taken a position on the Clinton plan.
Public opinion polls chart a growing concern among Americans that they must divulge too much information to too many institutions. At the same time, Americans are eagerly using the new kinds of services that many of those institutions offer, such as buying and banking online.
Clinton spoke to more than 1,300 graduates at Eastern Michigan, a public university just outside Detroit. Clinton plans two more commencements addresses this spring, his last as president.
Later Sunday, Clinton was the headliner at a fund-raising dinner for the Detroit-area National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. The event, which organizers said drew about 9,000 people, also honored Rep. John Conyers of Michogam, D-Mich., for his civil rights work and legislative career.
In his speech, Clinton ticked off a list of accomplishments during his administration, such as lower crime rates and the booming economy, and called on Congress to pass gun control legislation and vote on his languishing judicial appointments.
The president was particularly pointed in criticizing the Senate for delaying the judicial votes, including some who have waited for three years.
"When it comes to appointing judges, the United States Senate is not doing what it ought to be doing, especially when it comes to women and minority appointees," Clinton said. "Vote them up or down. Let us know how you stand."
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