Stopping banks from sharing your data. Good luck with that

Donna keeps her money with Bank of America. She also receives a lot of solicitations from lenders and other financial companies.

Donna wants to know if BofA is sharing her personal information with others and, if so, what she can do to stop it.

Data sharing can be a chronic headache for consumers. Many businesses freely trade in their customers’ info as if such data were just another commodity.

Banks routinely enter into “joint-marketing agreements” with other financial companies, which typically entail the bank passing along people’s names, addresses and phone numbers, not to mention other sensitive information.

I took a close look at BofA’s privacy policy. It clearly specifies that it can share customer data with joint-marketing partners. It also clearly states that there’s nothing customers can do about it.

I’d like to say you should just take your business elsewhere. But I have yet to find a major bank or credit union that doesn’t do the same thing.

What can you do? Contact each company sending you solicitations and, one by one, ask them to knock it off. And consider keeping your money under a mattress.

For more, check out today’s Ask Laz video.

If you have a consumer question, email me at asklaz@latimes.com or contact me via Twitter @Davidlaz.