Free Republic

Banks are reporting even slightly 'abnormal' transactions to comply with the law. The result: A deluge of reports, a lot of confusion and more government intrusion. < SNIP > It's called the Suspicious Activity Report, or SAR, and critics say it victimizes honest citizens who are conducting legitimate financial activities through legitimate banking channels, while generating a flood of useless paperwork and burdening financial institutions with billions of dollars in costs. < SNIP > In total, 919,230 SARs were filed in 2005. You cannot find out if one has been filed on you; anyone revealing that information is breaking the...

Excerpt - WASHINGTON -(Dow Jones)- The Federal Reserve and the U.S. Treasury Department are considering a major expansion of rules that financial-services providers keep detailed records of financial transactions and confirm customer identities. The Fed and Treasury's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, known as FinCEN, gave advance notice Friday that they are considering lowering - or eliminating altogether - the current $3,000 threshold below which banks and other financial- services providers don't have to keep special records on transactions. In a public notice, the federal agencies said this change could help with " combating terrorism, money laundering and other illicit activity."...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Internal Revenue Service is investigating whether unauthorized people gained access to sensitive taxpayer and bank account information but has not yet exposed any privacy breaches, an official said on Friday. The U.S. tax agency -- whose databases include suspicious activity reports from banks about possible terrorist or criminal transactions -- launched the probe after the Government Accountability Office said in April that the IRS "routinely permitted excessive access" to the computer files. The GAO team was able to tap into the data without authorization, and gleaned information such as bank account holders' names, social security numbers,...

Clark Worked For Ark. Data FirmAcxiom Role Part of Surveillance Debate By Robert O'Harrow Jr. Washington Post Staff Writer Saturday, September 27, 2003; Page A08Retired Gen. Wesley K. Clark helped an Arkansas information company win a contract to assist development of an airline passenger screening system, one of the largest surveillance programs ever devised by the government. Starting just after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks, Clark sought out dozens of government and industry officials on behalf of Acxiom Corp., a data powerhouse that maintains names, addresses and a wide array of personal details about nearly every adult in the...