I think privacy laws and collections laws are a different egg altogether. You absolutely have the right to release information for purposes of debt collections, whether it be to a collection agency, government agency or attorney.

As far as privacy laws, they deal more with releasing information for the purposes of soliciting. They don't have to sign anything giving you permission to release their information. You just have to have given them notice of your privacy laws with instructions of how to opt out of you releasing their private information. That's why you get those booklets from the credit card company telling you what information of yours they will share with affiliates and third parties and then give you an address you can write to to opt out.

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Rebecka Melson ~ Virtual Business Services