Financial Lives at Stake: Our New Relationship with Money

As people get new ways to manage and spend their money, their financial lives grow more interconnected with the rest of the world. In this new environment, financial services customers and providers need to grapple with the issues of data security and privacy, says Christina Tetreault, senior policy counsel for Consumer Reports Advocacy. These two are related in that they are both about controlling access to data. Where they differ is that security is about controlling outside attacks, while privacy is about giving customers control over how their data is used.

Consumer Reports has teamed up with other organizations to form an open-source called effort “the Digital Standard” that seeks to create privacy and security standard for future product design. You can learn more about it at www.thedigitalstandard.org.

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It is worth noting that multiple states have passed or are considering data privacy laws. Below is a list of states that have recently introduced bills to protect consumer privacy. While the individual provisions vary from state to state, the bills are generally intended to provide consumers with greater transparency and control over their personal data, including giving consumers the ability to know how their personal data is being used, where it has been sent, and the option to delete or remove personally identifying information. Some states, for instance California, have laws that go beyond breach notification and require companies to make changes in their data processing operations.

• Hawaii – SB 418
• Massachusetts – SD 341
• New Mexico – SB 176
• New York – S00224
• North Dakota – HB 1485
• Oregon –HB2866
• Washington – SB 5064

This year’s Power of Prepaid will feature several discussions on the future of payments, privacy, and security and will be held April 8-10, in Washington DC. You can register here.