FRCA, FACTA, GLBA and the California Courts

Craig Williams over at May It Please The Court reports on a recent privacy decision involving what the court refers to as the convergence of the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) as amended by the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act of 2003(FACTA), Gramm Leach Bliley Act (GLBA) and California's Financial Information Privacy Act.

All of these legislative/regulatory acts were created to protect the treatment of personal consumer information and how such information can and can't be used by financial service businesses. As stated by the court,

"these four legislative enactments generally seek to govern the treatment of personal information albeit to varying degrees. In FCRA, FACTA and GLBA, Congress created a statutory framework that seeks tostrike a balance between providing citizens affordable financial services while protecting them against invasions of privacy and the misuse of personal information."

California's Financial Information Privacy Act was passed to provide the citizens of California with more stringent protections than those provided by FCRA (nka FACTA) and GLBA.

The 9th Circuit previously held that federal laws preempted the more stringent state laws. Craig indicates that the 9th Circuit is unlikely to change its position if California's Attorney General decides to appeal the decision. As I recall one of the the reasons FCRA was amended to the new acronym FACTA was because the federal preemption provisions under FCRA were going to expire.

Check out the press release issued by the American Bankers Association.