When we worry about who might be spying on our private lives, we usually think about the F

ederal agents. But the private sector outdoes the government every time. It's Linda Tripp, not the FBI, who is facing charges under Maryland's laws against secret telephone taping. It's our hanks, not the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), that pass our private financial data to telemarketing firms.

Consumer activists are pressing Congress for better privacy laws without much result so far. The legislators lean toward letting business people track our financial habits virtually at will.

As an example of what's going on, consider U.S. Bancorp, which was recently sued for deceptive practices by the state of Minnesota. According to the lawsuit, the bank supplied a telemarketer called Member Works with sensitive customer data such as names, phone numbers, bank-account and credit-card numbers, Social Security numbers, account balances and credit limits.

With these customer lists in hand, Member Works started dialing for dollars-selling dental plans, videogames, computer. software and other products and services. Customers who accepted a "free trial offer" had 30 days to cancel. If the deadline passed, they were charged automatically through their bank or credit-card accounts. U.S. Bancorp collected a share of the revenues. Customers were doubly deceived, the lawsuit claims. They didn't know that the bank was giving account numbers to Member Works. And if customers asked, they were led to think the answer was no.

The state sued Member Works separately for deceptive selling. The company defends that it did anything wrong. For its part, U.S. Bancorp settled without admitting any mistakes. But it agreed to stop exposing its customers to non-financial products sold by outside firms. A few top banks decided to do the same. Many other banks will still do business with Member Works and similar firms.

And banks will still be mining data from your account in order to sell you financial products, including things of little value, such as credit insurance and credit-card protection plans. You have almost no protection from businesses that use your personal accounts for profit. For example, no federal law shields "transaction and experience" information--mainly the details of your bank and credit-card accounts. Social Security numbers are for sale by private firms. They've generally agreed not to sell to the public. But to businesses, the numbers are an open book. Self-regulation doesn't work. A firm might publish a privacy-protection policy, but who enforces it？

Take U.S. Bancorp again. Customers were told, in writing, that "all personal information you supply to us will be considered confidential". Then it sold your data to Member Works. The bank even claims that it doesn't "sell" your data at all. It merely "shares" it and reaps a profit.

Contrary to popular belief, the author finds that spying on people's privacy______.

A．is mainly carried out by means of secret taping

B．has been intensified with the help of the IRS

C．is practiced exclusively by the FBI

D．is more prevalent in business circles