Overview#
Right to Financial Privacy Act of
1978 (
RFPA; codified at 12
U.S.C. ch. 35, ยง 3401 et seq.) is a
United States Act of Congress that that gives the customers of
Financial Institutions the right to some level of
privacy from
Government Entity searches.
Right to Financial Privacy Act permits the
Federal Bureau of Investigation could obtain records with a
National Security Letter (
NSL) only if the
FBI could first demonstrate the person was a foreign power or an agent of a foreign power. Compliance by the recipient of the
NSL was voluntary, and
US States' consumer
privacy laws often allowed
Financial Institutions to decline the requests. Right to Financial Privacy Act was amended
1986,
United States Congress amended Right to Financial Privacy Act to allow the government to compel disclosure of the requested information. The
United States PATRIOT Act of 2001 amended the RFPA.
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