Have YOUR bank records been turned
over to the prying eyes of bureaucrats?

WASHINGTON, DC -- Hundreds of banks around the USA have started
turning their complete customer database -- including Social Security
numbers and account balances -- over to government agencies to comply
with federal child support laws, the Libertarian Party warned today.

"Politicians are now using the Deadbeat Dads law to violate
your financial privacy -- even if you've never had children," said
Steve Dasbach, national director of the Libertarian Party. "And if
that's not bad enough, the law also prohibits your bank from notifying
you that your account information has been turned over to the prying
eyes of bureaucrats."

The Financial Institution Data Match program, an outgrowth of
the 1996 Deadbeat Dads law, requires banks to search their databases
every three months for matches against state-provided lists of parents
who have fallen behind in child support payments.

But banks without the resources to comply have been forced to
turn their entire customer database over to state agencies -- and allow
government bureaucrats to do the searches instead.

The result, according to the Los Angeles Times, is that 197
banks, credit unions, and life insurance companies in California are
turning over their entire customer database to the State Franchise Tax
Board, which combs through every customer's account to determine who's
in arrears on child support. Many other states have similar programs.

"Without your knowledge or permission, government bureaucrats
can get access to your most private financial information," said
Dasbach. "In the name of catching a few guilty people, the privacy of
millions of innocent people is violated."

Perversely, those innocent people may have the most to fear
when their state adopts the Financial Institution Data Match program,
Dasbach warned. For example, California government officials have
already:

* Seized the bank accounts of innocent people. "An
investigation last fall discovered the Los Angeles County district
attorney's office had seized the bank accounts of dozens of men who
were later determined not to be the fathers of the children in
question," said Dasbach.

"Incredibly, politicians who enacted the Financial Institution
Data Match program made it almost impossible to protect yourself from
false seizures, because it's illegal for your bank to tell you that it
has forwarded your account information to the state. The only thing
that's private is the government's power to snoop on you."

* Tried to sell millions of individual bank account records to
private companies. "In June, the California Employment Department was
forced to back down after the public discovered its scheme to sell
salary data on 14 million residents," noted Dasbach.

"As long as politicians have access to this information, it's
only a matter of time before their greed overcomes them, and they sell
it to the highest bidder. And if your bank records are put up for sale,
everyone from prospective employers to creditors to private individuals
could learn every detail of your family's financial habits."

* Jailed innocent people. "Last fall, an innocent California
man was imprisoned for 26 hours before it was discovered that he had
the same name as a man sought for back child support," said Dasbach.

"Only the government would claim it is protecting children by
destroying their parents' privacy, seizing their bank accounts, and
hauling them off to jail. If politicians really care about protecting
children, let them prove it by abolishing the Deadbeat Dads law -- and
getting out of the bank spying business entirely."

The Libertarian Party http://www.lp.org/
2600 Virginia Ave. NW, Suite 100 voice: 202-333-0008
Washington DC 20037 fax: 202-333-0072

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