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Editorial -- 3/31/99
If you are not familiar with the proposed Know your Customer program, you may want to read this first.Due to an outpouring of outrage from both ends of the political spectrum, the intrusive Know your Customer program was apparently abandoned. That's the good news.
The bad news is, over 88 percent of banks already have "Know Your Customer" policies in place (based on an American Banker's Association survey.)
Current rules require that all transactions five grand and over that "are not the sort in which the particular customer would normally be expected to engage" must be reported. I guess if you sell that old van you no longer need you'll be getting a call from the FBI or Treasury. As another example, I know a lot of people that have sports memorabilia and occasionally sell item(s) in excess of that amount; I guess they are being reported. Freelance writers that have a day job (or even those that don't, but are subsisting on $200-$500 sales) but occasionally make a nice sale to a major magazine are possibly being reported all the time. I wonder how many government agencies are beating down the doors of the lucky writer that gets an advance on his/her first novel or sells his/her first screenplay when they had been waiting tables? People finally achieving their dreams after a lifetime of work is none of the government's damn business. If individuals fail to pay their quarterly estimated tax, then let them pay the financial penalties. If they fail to report the income on their next return, then charge them additional penalties. But we, as normal citizens, are being considered guilty of something without cause. That's B.S. and I'm tired of it.
Bottom line, the proposed rules would have made what is de facto policy official policy. I think the whole thing sucks.
Read about other privacy issues.