Senator Sepulveda To Facebook: Keep Your Hands Off My Banking Information

ALBANY, NEW YORK (08/07/2018) -- State Senator Luis Sepulveda, Ranking Member of the Senate Crime Victims, Crime and Corrections, announced today legislation that will give consumers major control over their personal data - who views it and what is can be used for.

The legislation is being introduced as Facebook and more and more corporations seek personal data, including individual bank account and health records. This is happening while we witness repeated disclosures of personal data being hacked from private corporation servers.

“News this week that Facebook confirmed it is seeking detailed customer information from major banks, as well as disclosures last year that it was seeking patient records from health care providers, pose a serious threat to fundamental American values of freedom and liberty,” said the Bronx state legislator. “This is an issue that raises red flags and which no one in the NYS Legislature has acted upon. We need to stop this insidious invasion of personal privacy dead in its tracks.”

Senator Sepulveda pointed to a Wall Street Journal article  this week that reported Facebook has asked big banks to share customers’ detailed information, including credit card transactions and checking account balances ‘as part of an effort to offer new services to users.’  “Does the phrase Big Brother and ‘1984’ come to mind?” he asked.

Sepulveda said his legislation mirrors a new California law that guards consumer privacy, “though I’d ultimately like to see a strong federal law protecting consumers from the invasion of their personal privacy.”

Under Senator Sepulveda’s proposed New York Consumer Privacy Act, consumers would have the following rights:

• Right to know all data collected by a business on them;
• Right to say NO to the sale of their information and Right to DELETE their data;
• Right to be informed of what categories of data will be collected about them prior to its collection, and to be informed of any changes to this collection;
• Mandated opt-in before sale of children’s information (under the age of 16);
• Right to know the categories of third parties with whom their data is shared;
• Right to know the categories of sources of information from whom their data was acquired;
• Right to know the business or commercial purpose of collecting their information; and
• Enforcement by the Attorney General of the State of New York.

“This stems from the fundamental belief that your personal information has value, and that the decision regarding what to do with it should be yours,” said Senator Sepulveda. “It’s a simple concept that can be summed up in two words – IT’S PERSONAL!"