Read a financial privacy notice before discarding it

Read it before you toss it. A privacy notice from a financial company can look like a brochure, yet it may describe choices about how that company shares your information. If it lists options, note them and respond only through the route the notice names, after confirming that route with the company.

By Junk Mail Magic. Updated October 2, 2026.

Work through the notice

Note the sender's name and whether you have an account or other relationship with it. If you do not recognize the company, look up its contact details independently instead of using a number printed on the notice.
Mark any section that offers a choice, such as limiting sharing or marketing contact, and any response form or contact route the notice names.
Copy any deadline or statement about what happens if you do not respond, exactly as printed.
Decide which choices, if any, you want to make. Use the response route the notice describes, confirmed through a company contact you found yourself.

Read the sharing table carefully

The CFPB's model notice separates three questions: why information is shared, whether this institution shares it, and whether you can limit it. Own marketing, affiliate marketing and nonaffiliate marketing can have different answers. A Yes in the sharing column does not mean Yes in the choice column.

Use the notice's verified response method for the choices offered. Not every company uses the model layout. Ask the company's privacy contact about unclear language and use the linked CFPB guidance as a reference. This choice is separate from asking for fewer printed advertisements.

Private worksheet: privacy notice review

Example for your own use. Replace the bracketed details and review what you share.

Company name: [name] My relationship to it: [account type or none] Choices listed in the notice: [list] Response route named in the notice: [route] Route confirmed through contact I found: [yes/no, how] Deadline wording, exactly as printed: [text or none stated] Choices I made: [list] Date I responded and how: [date, method]

File it where you will find it again

Put the completed worksheet and the notice in the folder you keep for that company's account paperwork. When the next privacy notice arrives, lay it beside this one and check whether the choices or the response route changed.

Official sources

Check whose choice a joint-account privacy opt-out changes Renew an affiliate marketing opt-out when the notice requires it Check a privacy opt-out after closing a financial account Use a privacy portal when it offers a mail-only choice Keep important mail All practical mail guides

Keep personal records with the organization that handles them

Junk Mail Magic is for ordinary unwanted advertising. Use the official contact route in this guide for records, account changes or someone else’s correspondence.

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