via Consumer Comprehension of Financial Privacy Notices – s70907-21-levy.pdf.
This report describes the results of the second phase of a research project focusing on privacy notices that financial institutions are required to provide their customers under the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLBA). The project goals were to better understand consumer comprehension of privacy notices and to assess the communication effectiveness of several competing notice formats.
The project was co-sponsored by seven federal agencies: the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the Federal Reserve Board, the Federal Trade Commission, the National Credit Union Administration, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the Office of Thrift Supervision, and the Securities and Exchange Commission (collectively “the Agencies”).
In the first phase, the Agencies contracted with Kleimann Communication Group (KCG) to use qualitative research techniques to develop a prototype privacy notice that communicated with consumers in a clear and effective manner. Complete details of this phase of the project are available in the final report submitted by KCG to the Agencies.
As a second phase of the project, the Agencies contracted with Macro International (Macro) to conduct the data collection for the quantitative study with analysis completed by the authors. This report discusses the methodology and findings of the quantitative study.
As consultants to the research project, the authors prepared this report at the request of the Agencies.