A Washington appeals court ruled that credit reporting agency Trans Union must abide by the privacy provisions of the Gramm Leach Bliley Act when sharing consumers' personal information, according to an announcement this week by the Federal Trade Commission.
Under GLB, which took effect in November 2000, financial institutions must provide notice and allow customers to opt out of third-party data sharing.
Trans Union filed suit against the FTC and other federal agencies Aug. 30, 2000, alleging that the regulations should not apply to credit reporting agencies because they are not financial institutions. It also claimed that the act's definition of personally identifiable information was too broad and that the regulation violated Trans Union's First Amendment right of free speech.
The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia had ruled against Trans Union. On July 16, the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia upheld that earlier ruling.
