DBA International Succeeds in Amending GLBA Privacy Notice

New law anticipated to save debt buyers millions of dollars annually

On Monday, December 7th, the President signed into law H.R. 601, the “Eliminate Privacy Confusion Act.” H.R. 601 amends the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLBA) to eliminate debt buyers’ current requirement that they send an annual privacy notice to consumers whose debt they own.

Debt buyers still have to send consumer debtors an “initial” privacy notice when the debt buyer first locates and tries to obtain a payment from the consumer.  The initial privacy notice must describe the debt buyer’s policies for whether and how the debt buyer shares consumers’ personal information with third parties.  Importantly, however, debt buyers will no longer have to send consumers an annual privacy notice if:

  1. The debt buyer provides personal information to third parties only under the opt-out provisions in GLBA or under the exemption provisions in GLBA; and
  2. The debt buyer has not changed its policies and practices with regard to disclosing personal information from the policies and practices disclosed in the initial privacy notice.

Six years ago, DBA International conceived of the idea of amending GLBA to eliminate annual notices and drafted the original bill.  Since then, DBA worked tirelessly with the Congress and supported the leadership of Congressman Blaine Luetkemeyer (R-MO) and Senator Richard Shelby (R-AL) to enact the current version of the privacy notice waiver bill.  This new law is expected to save DBA members tens of millions of dollars annually.

In October of 2014, the CFPB adopted a rule to amend the annual privacy notice requirement.  Given the elimination of the underlying annual privacy notice statutory requirement, it is expected that the CFPB will soon announce that they have changed that part of their Rule which addresses annual privacy notices.

H.R. 601 is effective immediately so members should see immediate benefits.

This Alert is intended for Members of DBA International and is for informational purposes only and is in no way intended to provide legal advice. Members are encouraged to consult with an attorney of their choice for legal advice concerning this matter.