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PrivacyToday.com

 

 

     PrivacyToday.com assists financial institutions, businesses, government agencies, legislators and the media understand, develop, implement and audit appropriate privacy and information security policies, strategies, and training programs in today’s fast changing privacy environment.  Robert Douglas is the founder of PrivacyToday.com located in Steamboat Springs, Colorado.

 

     Mr. Douglas is the author of “Privacy and Customer Information Security – An Employee Awareness Guide” (© 2001 American Privacy Consultants).  This desk reference and training guide is perfect for all financial services professionals and has been used as the foundation for privacy and customer information security training by financial institutions across the United States.  The Guide covers critical issues confronting the financial services industry including privacy policies, identity theft, pretext inquiries, account takeover, and customer information security procedures.  The guide can be purchased as a stand-alone product or customized to incorporate and supplement the policies and procedures already in place at any financial institution.

 

     Prior to founding PrivacyToday.com, Mr. Douglas was a Washington, DC private detective with more than 17 years experience in complex investigations and trial preparation.  In 1997 Mr. Douglas investigated the practices of “Information Brokers” selling financial services industry customer’s personal financial information on the Internet.  Mr. Douglas presented the results of his investigation to Congress and this resulted in his testifying before the United States House of Representatives, Committee on Banking and Financial Services, during the July 28, 1998 “Hearing On The Use Of Deceptive Practices To Gain Access To Personal Financial Information.”  Mr. Douglas exposed the use of identity theft, “pretext phone calls”, “social engineering”, and fraud by “Information Brokers” to penetrate banking security systems.  That hearing resulted in passage of the Financial Information Privacy Act, which was incorporated into the Gramm-Leach-Bliley financial modernization bill signed into law in November of 1999.

 

     In August of 2000, Mr. Douglas authored a training manual for the American Bankers Association titled “Spotting and Avoiding Pretext Calls”.  The manual was distributed to all ABA member institutions.  The manual emphasizes the need for training financial institution employees to understand and recognize “pretext” phone calls designed to steal customer’s personal financial information and assets by means of identity theft.  The manual provides an introduction to creating a pretext avoidance education, training, and prevention program.

 

     Mr. Douglas testified again before Congress on September 13, 2000 to assist the Committee on Banking and Financial Services in its oversight capacity.  At that time he reported on developing trends in attempts to illegally access personal, confidential information.  

 

     In 2001, The American Bankers Association selected PrivacyToday.com to provide a series of Identity Theft Prevention Workshops.  These workshops were held in 2001 and 2002 in cities across the United States.  The half-day workshops focused on the prevention of account takeover by identity thieves using pretext and other forms of fraud.  All workshop attendees received “Privacy and Customer Information Security – An Employee Awareness Guide”. 

 

     Most recently, Mr. Douglas was called as a witness before the U.S. Senate Committee on Finance to offer expert testimony at the Hearing on Homeland Security Threats Posed by Document Fraud, Identity Theft, and Social Security Number Misuse and before the U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary to offer testimony at the Hearing on Securing Electronic Personal Data: Striking A Balance Between Privacy and Commercial and Governmental Use.

 

     Mr. Douglas and PrivacyToday.com continue to monitor the methods of those who would attempt to penetrate our nation’s financial institutions and violate the privacy and security of those who entrust their assets to those institutions.  Additionally, PrivacyToday.com assists financial institutions by developing, implementing, and auditing education and training programs designed to assist institutions in the prevention of illegal access of customer’s personal and confidential financial information.

 

 

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