EPIC has posted some insights into the history of the US Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act and why privacy protections for personal information succeeded despite opposition from the banking industry:

Critical support for the Markey Amendment came from Representative Joe Barton (R-TX). Barton expressed concern that his credit union had sold his address to Victoria’s Secret. Representative Barton noted that he started receiving Victoria’s Secret catalogs at his Washington home. This was troubling—he didn’t want his wife thinking that he bought lingerie for women in Washington, or that he spent his time browsing through such material.

Barton explained that he maintained an account in Washington for incidental expenses, but used it very little. Neither he nor his wife had purchased anything from Victoria’s Secret at the Washington address. Barton smelled a skunk; he reasoned that since he spent so little money in Washington, his credit union was the only business with his address. Barton believed that he should be able to stop financial institutions from selling personal information to third parties, and supported the Markey Amendment. Congress enacted the bill, and now individuals have the right to direct financial institutions not to sell personal information to third parties.

I guess we can say thank you to Victoria’s Secret for putting fear into the heart of the American congress. Financial loss did not seem to bother them, guns and ammo magazines probably never even raised an eyebrow, but one lingerie catalog to a representative from Texas and the bi-partisan privacy advocacy movement was set in motion. Note that Markey was considered a liberal of Massachusetts while Barton was a conservative Texan.