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Alumni Associations sell member data to banks for a profit; Alumni in uproar

The tag line on the ISU Alumni page is Show your pride with the ISU Bank of America Credit Card. The pride of the alumni association is going to be slightly tarnished for a while until the sting wears off from the recent headlines.

Let me start off by saying I am an Iowa State University and Baker University alumni and have great respect for both institutions. Most of my banking is managed by Bank of America and I don’t have any intention on moving banks, at least in the short term.

The issue of selling consumer data has been front and center this past week in several of the Iowa Newspapers and online. The issue is that several alumni associations have provided ‘Non-public’ data to banks as part of the partnership program, including e-mail addresses.

While I don’t think there is a smoking gun and some big scandal, since most of this information is exchanged between banks and consumers during the process of setting up a normal credit card with any provider, it is more the lack of transparency that this information is being shared and that the alumni associations are profiting from the sale of this information.

Articles:
Alumni Associations And Public Universities Profit By Selling Student Data To Bank Of America

LETTER: Alumni Association dishonors students by selling personal info

University data deals shroud money

Thanks Kyle for the heads up. Let me know if you hear anything about your ISU card.

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