Right to Financial Privacy Act

The Right to Financial Privacy Act (12 U.S.C. § 3401 et seq.), also known as the RFPA is a United States Act that gives the customers of financial institutions the right to some level of privacy from government searches. Before the Act was passed, the United States government did not have to tell customers that they were accessing their records, and customers did not have the right to prevent such actions. It came about after the United States Supreme Court, in United States v. Miller, 425 U.SS. 435(1976), held that financial records are the property of the financial institution with which they are held, rather than the property of the customer.