[Federal Register Volume 88, Number 200 (Wednesday, October 18, 2023)]
[Notices]
[Pages 71861-71864]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2023-22965]


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FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION


Agency Information Collection Activities; Proposed Collection; 
Comment Request; Extension

AGENCY: Federal Trade Commission.

ACTION: Notice.

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SUMMARY: In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (PRA), 
the Federal Trade Commission (FTC or Commission) is seeking public 
comment on its proposal to extend for an additional three years the 
Office of Management and Budget clearance for information collection 
requirements in the Privacy of Consumer Financial Information Rule 
(Privacy Rule or Rule). This clearance expires on January 31, 2024.

DATES: Comments must be filed by December 18, 2023.

ADDRESSES: Interested parties may file a comment online or on paper, by 
following the instructions in the Request for Comment part of the 
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION section below. Write ``Privacy Rule, PRA 
Comment, P085405,'' on your comment, and file your comment online at 
https://www.regulations.gov by following the instructions on the web-
based form. If you prefer to file your comment on paper, mail your 
comment to the following address: Federal Trade Commission, Office of 
the Secretary, 600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Suite CC-5610 (Annex J), 
Washington, DC 20580.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Jennifer Rimm, Attorney, Division of 
Privacy and Identity Protection, Bureau of Consumer Protection, Federal 
Trade Commission, (202) 326-2277, [email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 
    Title of Collection: Privacy of Consumer Financial Information 
(Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act Privacy Rule), 16 CFR part 313.
    OMB Control Number: 3084-0121.
    Type of Review: Extension without change of currently approved 
collection.
    Affected Public: Private Sector: Businesses and other for-profit 
entities.
    Estimated Annual Burden Hours: 1,454,850.

[[Page 71862]]

    Estimated Annual Labor Costs: $35,820,366.
    Abstract: The Privacy Rule is designed to ensure that customers and 
consumers, subject to certain exceptions, will have access to the 
privacy policies of the covered financial institutions with which they 
conduct business--namely, motor vehicle dealers that do not routinely 
extend credit to consumers directly without assigning the credit to 
unaffiliated third parties (hereafter, ``motor vehicle dealers''). As 
mandated by the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (``GLBA''), 15 U.S.C. 6801-6809, 
the Rule requires motor vehicle dealers to disclose to consumers: (1) 
initial notice of the financial institution's privacy policy when 
establishing a customer relationship with a consumer and/or before 
sharing a consumer's nonpublic personal information with certain 
nonaffiliated third parties; (2) notice of the consumer's right to opt 
out of information sharing with such parties; (3) annual notice of the 
institution's privacy policy to any continuing customer; \1\ and (4) 
notice of changes in the institution's practices on information 
sharing. These requirements are subject to the PRA. The Rule does not 
require recordkeeping. For PRA burden calculations, the FTC shares the 
PRA burden with the CFPB for financial institutions over which both 
agencies have enforcement authority under the CFPB's regulation 
corresponding to the Privacy Rule, titled Privacy of Consumer Financial 
Information (Regulation P), 12 CFR part 1016, and attributes to itself 
the burden for all motor vehicle dealers. See 12 U.S.C. 5519.
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    \1\ On December 4, 2015, Congress amended the GLBA as part of 
the Fixing America's Surface Transportation Act (``FAST Act''). The 
FAST Act included a subsection titled Eliminate Privacy Notice 
Confusion (FAST Act, Pub. L. 114-094, section 75001) that added new 
GLBA section 503(f). This subsection provides an exception under 
which financial institutions that meet certain conditions are not 
required to provide annual privacy notices to customers. Section 
503(f) requires that to qualify for this exception, a financial 
institution must not share nonpublic personal information about 
customers except as described in certain statutory exceptions, under 
which sharing does not trigger a customer's statutory right to opt 
out of the sharing. In addition, section 503(f)(2) requires that the 
financial institution must not have changed its policies and 
practices with regard to disclosing nonpublic personal information 
from those that the institution disclosed in the most recent privacy 
notice the customer received. On December 9, 2021, the Privacy Rule 
was amended at 16 CFR 313.5(e) to incorporate this exception. The 
amendments were effective January 10, 2022. 86 FR 70020 (Dec. 9, 
2021).
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    As required by section 3506(c)(2)(A) of the PRA, 44 U.S.C. 
3506(c)(2)(A), the FTC is providing this opportunity for public comment 
before requesting that OMB extend the existing clearance for the 
information collection requirements contained in the Rule.
    Burden Estimates: FTC staff estimates that approximately 29,500 
non-motor vehicle dealer financial institutions are subject to FTC 
jurisdiction under Regulation P, consisting of approximately 29,000 
established entities and 500 new entrants annually during the renewal 
period. The complete burden estimates for new entrants and established 
entities are detailed in the charts below.

1. Established Financial Institutions

    For established entities, staff believes that the model privacy 
form and the Online Form Builder reduce the time associated with 
providing required initial and annual notices. Businesses who have not 
changed their privacy notice since the last notice sent and who do not 
share information with non-affiliated third parties outside of certain 
statutory exceptions are not required to issue annual notices to their 
customers under the Rule. FTC staff thus estimates that at least 80% of 
businesses covered by Regulation P that have continuing relationships 
with customers exceeding one year will not be required to issue annual 
notices because they do not make changes to their policies or share 
nonpublic information outside of the statutory exceptions. Finally, 
staff estimates that no more than 1% of the estimated 29,000 
established-entity respondents would make additional changes to privacy 
policies at any time other than the occasion of the annual notice.

2. New Entrant Financial Institutions

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                                                             Approx. number
                   Activity                      Hours per   of respondents   Approx. total     FTC      Hourly wage and labor category    Approx. total
                                                 respondent        \2\         annual hrs.    portion                  \3\                  labor costs
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Reviewing internal policies and developing GLB            4          29,000         116,000     58,000  $39.52 Professional/Technical...      $2,292,160
 Act-implementing instructions \4\.
Disseminating initial notices to new customers           15          29,000         435,000    217,500  $19.67 Clerical.................       4,278,225
Disseminating annual disclosure to pre-                  15           4,060          60,900     30,450  $19.67 Clerical.................         598,952
 existing customers.                                      5           4,060          20,300     10,150  $39.52 Professional/Technical...         401,128
Updating privacy policies and related                     7             290           2,030      1,015  $19.67 Clerical.................          19,965
 disclosures.                                             3             290             870        435  $39.52 Professional/Technical...          17,191
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    Totals....................................  ...........  ..............         635,100    317,550  ................................       7,607,621
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    New entrant financial institutions subject to FTC jurisdiction 
under Regulation P must provide initial disclosure notices to their 
consumers, including taking the time to develop implementing policies 
and procedures and create disclosure documents to effectuate the 
disclosure requirements. Staff's estimates of annual burden for 
established entities are as follows:
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    \2\ The estimate of respondents which are required to 
disseminate annual notices is based on the following assumptions: 
(1) 29,000 established respondents; (2) of those, approximately 70% 
maintain customer relationships exceeding one year (20,300), and no 
more than 20% of those (together, 4,060) make changes to their 
policies and share nonpublic information outside of the statutory 
exceptions, and therefore are required to provide annual notices 
under the Rule (this is consistent with the main text above that at 
least 80% of businesses covered by Regulation P that have continuing 
relationships with customers exceeding one year will not be required 
to issue annual notices because they do not make changes to their 
policies or share nonpublic information outside of the statutory 
exceptions); (3) and no more than 1% (290) of established 
respondents make additional changes to privacy policies at any time 
other than the occasion of the annual notice; and (4) such changes 
will occur no more often than once per year.
    \3\ Staff calculated labor costs by applying appropriate hourly 
cost figures to burden hours. The hourly rates used were based on 
median wages for Financial Examiners and for Office and 
Administrative Support, corresponding to professional/technical time 
(e.g., compliance evaluation and planning, designing and producing 
notices, reviewing and updating information systems), and clerical 
time (e.g., reproduction tasks, filing, and, where applicable to the 
given event, typing or mailing) respectively. See U.S. Bureau of 
Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wages, May 2022, at 
https://www.bls.gov/oes/tables.htm.
    \4\ This includes all efforts performed by or for the respondent 
to determine whether and to what extent the respondent is covered by 
an agency collection of information, understand the nature of the 
request, and determine the appropriate response (including the 
creation and dissemination of documents and/or electronic 
disclosures).

[[Page 71863]]



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                                                 Hours per   Approx. number   Approx. total     FTC      Hourly wage and labor category    Approx. total
                   Activity                      respondent  of respondents    annual hrs.    portion                  \5\                  labor costs
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Reviewing internal policies and developing GLB           20             500          10,000      5,000  $39.52 Professional/Technical...        $197,600
 Act-implementing instructions.
Creating disclosure document or electronic                1             500             500        250  $19.67 Clerical.................           4,918
 disclosure (including initial, annual, and               2             500           1,000        500  $39.52 Professional/Technical...          19,760
 opt-out disclosures).
Disseminating initial disclosure (including              15             500           7,500      3,750  $19.67 Clerical.................          73,763
 opt-out notices).                                       10             500           5,000      2,500  $39.52 Professional/Technical...          98,800
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    Totals....................................  ...........  ..............          24,000     12,000  ................................         394,841
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3. Established Motor Vehicle Dealers
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    \5\ Staff calculated labor costs by applying appropriate hourly 
cost figures to burden hours, as described in footnote 3 above.
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    FTC has sole authority over motor vehicle dealers subject to the 
Rule. Staff estimates that approximately 49,000 auto dealers are 
subject to the Rule's requirements, consisting of 47,000 established 
dealers and 2,000 new entrants annually during the renewal period. FTC 
staff provides the following burden estimates for established motor 
vehicle dealers:

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                                              Approx. number
            Activity              Hours per   of respondents   Approx. total    Hourly wage and    Approx. total
                                  respondent        \6\         annual hrs.   labor category \7\    labor costs
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Reviewing internal policies and            4          47,000         188,000  $39.52                  $7,429,760
 developing GLB Act-                                                           Professional/
 implementing instructions.                                                    Technical.
Disseminating initial notices             15          47,000         705,000  $19.67 Clerical...      13,867,350
 to new customers.
Disseminating annual disclosure           15           6,580          98,700  $19.67 Clerical...       1,941,429
                                           5           6,580          32,900  $39.52                   1,300,208
                                                                               Professional/
                                                                               Technical.
Updating privacy policies and              7             470           3,290  $19.67 Clerical...          64,714
 related disclosures.                      3             470           1,410  $39.52                      55,723
                                                                               Professional/
                                                                               Technical.
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    Totals.....................  ...........  ..............       1,029,300  ..................      24,659,184
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4. New Entrant Motor Vehicle Dealers
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    \6\ Commission staff relies on industry estimates of the total 
number of motor vehicle dealers in the United States, based on 
Census data and Bureau of Labor Statistics data. Commission staff 
did not separately estimate the number of such dealers who may be 
covered by the Rule because they do not routinely extend credit to 
consumers directly without assigning the credit to unaffiliated 
third parties.
    \7\ Staff calculated labor costs by applying appropriate hourly 
cost figures to the burden hours described above. See BLS 
Occupational Employment and Wages, May 2022, at https://www.bls.gov/oes/tables.htm.
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    FTC staff provides the following burden estimates for new entrant 
motor vehicle dealers:

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                                  Hours per   Approx. number   Approx. total    Hourly wage and    Approx. total
            Activity              respondent  of respondents    annual hrs.     labor category      labor costs
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Reviewing internal policies and           20           2,000          40,000  $39.52                  $1,580,800
 developing GLB Act-                                                           Professional/
 implementing instructions.                                                    Technical.
Creating disclosure document or            1           2,000           2,000  $19.67 Clerical...          39,340
 electronic disclosure                     2           2,000           4,000  $39.52                     158,080
 (including initial, annual,                                                   Professional/
 and opt-out disclosures).                                                     Technical.
Disseminating initial                     15           2,000          30,000  $19.67 Clerical...         590,100
 disclosure (including opt-out            10           2,000          20,000  $39.52                     790,400
 notices).                                                                     Professional/
                                                                               Technical.
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    Totals.....................  ...........  ..............          96,000  ..................       3,158,720
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    Estimated Non-Labor Costs: Staff believes that capital or other 
non-labor costs associated with these information collection 
requirements are minimal. Staff anticipates that covered entities are 
already equipped to provide written notices (e.g., computers with word 
processing programs, copying machines, mailing capabilities). In 
addition, staff anticipates that entities that offer consumers the 
choice to receive notices via electronic format will already have an 
online presence to support this option. As such, these entities will 
already be equipped with the computer equipment and software necessary 
to disseminate the required disclosures via electronic means.

Request for Comment

    Pursuant to section 3506(c)(2)(A) of the PRA, the FTC invites 
comments on: (1) whether the disclosure and recordkeeping requirements 
are necessary, including whether the information will be practically 
useful; (2) the accuracy of our burden estimates, including whether the 
methodology and assumptions used are valid; (3) ways to enhance the 
quality, utility, and clarity of the information to be collected; and 
(4) ways to minimize the burden of the collection of information.
    For the FTC to consider a comment, we must receive it on or before 
December 18, 2023. Your comment, including your name and your state, 
will be placed on the public record of this proceeding, including the 
https://www.regulations.gov website.
    You can file a comment online or on paper. Due to heightened 
security screening, postal mail addressed to the Commission will be 
subject to delay. We encourage you to submit your comments online 
through the https://www.regulations.gov website.

[[Page 71864]]

    If you file your comment on paper, write ``Privacy Rule, PRA 
Comment, P085405,'' on your comment and on the envelope, and mail it to 
the following address: Federal Trade Commission, Office of the 
Secretary, 600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Suite CC-5610 (Annex J), 
Washington, DC 20580. If possible, submit your paper comment to the 
Commission by overnight service.
    Because your comment will become publicly available at https://www.regulations.gov, you are solely responsible for making sure that 
your comment does not include any sensitive or confidential 
information. In particular, your comment should not include any 
sensitive personal information, such as your or anyone else's Social 
Security number; date of birth; driver's license number or other state 
identification number, or foreign country equivalent; passport number; 
financial account number; or credit or debit card number. You are also 
solely responsible for making sure that your comment does not include 
any sensitive health information, such as medical records or other 
individually identifiable health information. In addition, your comment 
should not include any ``trade secret or any commercial or financial 
information which . . . is privileged or confidential''--as provided by 
section 6(f) of the FTC Act, 15 U.S.C. 46(f), and FTC Rule 4.10(a)(2), 
16 CFR 4.10(a)(2)--including, in particular, competitively sensitive 
information, such as costs, sales statistics, inventories, formulas, 
patterns, devices, manufacturing processes, or customer names.
    Comments containing material for which confidential treatment is 
requested must (1) be filed in paper form, (2) be clearly labeled 
``Confidential,'' and (3) comply with FTC Rule 4.9(c). In particular, 
the written request for confidential treatment that accompanies the 
comment must include the factual and legal basis for the request, and 
must identify the specific portions of the comment to be withheld from 
the public record. See FTC Rule 4.9(c). Your comment will be kept 
confidential only if the General Counsel grants your request in 
accordance with the law and the public interest. Once your comment has 
been posted publicly at www.regulations.gov, we cannot redact or remove 
your comment unless you submit a confidentiality request that meets the 
requirements for such treatment under FTC Rule 4.9(c), and the General 
Counsel grants that request.
    The FTC Act and other laws that the Commission administers permit 
the collection of public comments to consider and use in this 
proceeding as appropriate. The Commission will consider all timely and 
responsive public comments that it receives on or before December 18, 
2023. For information on the Commission's privacy policy, including 
routine uses permitted by the Privacy Act, see https://www.ftc.gov/site-information/privacy-policy.

Josephine Liu,
Assistant General Counsel for Legal Counsel.
[FR Doc. 2023-22965 Filed 10-17-23; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6750-01-P