A new survey by the DeFi Education Fund found that 74 percent of Americans value financial privacy. This result aligns with what the Cato Institute found in 2022. Back then, 83 percent of Americans said the government should need a warrant to get your financial information.
Yet, despite the values of the American people, the American government thinks differently. Financial surveillance is everywhere. The Bank Secrecy Act, the PATRIOT Act, the geographic targeting orders, the know-your-customer requirements, the third-party doctrine, and more all add up to mean that the government has sweeping access into our financial lives.
Consider just the third-party doctrine. The Supreme Court essentially decided that any information shared with a financial institution loses Fourth Amendment protection. It doesn’t matter that you protect the information with complicated passwords, shred documents, and shield the ATM. The government decided that you have no expectation of privacy.
As the new Congress settles in, it should carefully consider the divide between public opinion and public policy. If 83 percent of Americans believe the government should need a warrant to access their financial information and 74 percent say they value financial privacy, then financial privacy is not a niche issue. It’s a mainstream view that the law has ignored for decades.
Financial privacy is about putting people in control of who knows what about them. It’s about upholding the Constitution. That’s something both Democrats and Republicans should be able to support.
