Did You Know This Was National Consumer Protection Week?

Here’s another event related to compliance, information security and privacy to put on your calendar…
This is National Consumer Protection Week (NCPW) in the U.S.


There are some good resources on the site.
You should know the advice being given to consumers; does your organization do what is advised?
For example the FDIC provides the following (with links from within each of these paragraphs):

“Protect Yourself
Consumer Affairs Program
Find out how the FDIC investigates and responds to consumer complaints of unfair or deceptive practices by financial institutions; addresses and educates the public on issues regarding deposit insurance, the financial system, and consumer protection laws and regulations.
Consumer Alerts
A comprehensive look at how you can protect yourself against various threats, including “phishing” attacks and identity theft; including alerts regarding the use of the FDIC name and seal in fraudulent e-mails trying to obtain valuable information from consumers and businesses. This also looks at other consumer issues such as getting free credit reports and privacy issues.
Don’t Be an On-line Victim: How to Guard Against Internet Thieves and Electronic Scams
This presentation provides the steps consumers should take to secure their computer and protect themselves from identity theft, as well as actions consumers should take if they become a victim of identity theft.
Consumer Financial Rights
Consumers’ financial rights are protected by federal and state laws and regulations covering many services offered by financial institutions. This brochure will assist organizations which often receive complaints about banks, savings and loan associations, and credit unions in referring complaints to the proper regulatory agency.”

Did you know how your organization could be impacted by an FDIC investigation for unfair or deceptive practices? If your posted privacy policy is not supported by internal procedures and actual practices then the FDIC could be knocking on your door (if you are a financial company), or the FTC could come a knockin’ regardless of what kind of organization you work for.
The NCPW site has links to what appears to be literally hundreds of interesting and useful links within information you can use to help you with your information security, privacy and IT compliance efforts. Usually the regulatory oversight agencies provide information and resources to help organizations effectively meet compliance requirements.

Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

Leave a Reply