Financial Privicy Law.

[Erik Mortis]

I am of the belief that other citizens shouldn't be able to see our money, and how much we have. The government can peep all they want, but I don't think we should be required to have a page on the bank that lets any person with a Shireroth account see how much money I have.

Thus, I propose a modification to the lawbook granting this Privilege of Financial Privacy from other Citizens. I will offer 50erb to any duke who can write up such a law(should be easy) and support it before the Landsraad.

[Jacobus Loki]

I agree wholeheartedly.

It's nobody's business how poor or rich anyone is.

As a matter of fact, since taxes are by Duchy now, it's not even the Government's business.

Except maybe the Kaiser & perhaps the steward when acting as Kaiser, and they shouldn't tell anyone.

[Andreas the Wise]

You bank admin reserves the right to pry at everyone's account to get statistics (like how many transactions per month, relative currency shares of the currencies etc), and of course the remove funds when you revoke citizenship.

[Jacobus Loki]

Speaking of which,

since Jess was Duke, shouldn't his funds go to Greg?

[Shyriath]

I'll hit this. I haven't authored any laws recently anyway. See the following proposal; I'm being a bit specific in limiting this bill to individual citizens, since I think it would still be a good idea for some information to be public or possibly public (how much erb in each Duchy, the state of the Crown account, etc.).

Financial Privacy Act

Be it enacted that the following be inserted after Chapter XIII, H: Official Bank, with all subsequent articles renumbered accordingly:

I. Financial Privacy
1. Any financial records, statements, or statistics pertaining to an individual citizen of Shireroth, including those of their accounts in the Bank of the Imperial Republic of Shireroth, shall not be made or permitted to be made available to the public except by the sole discretion and action of that citizen.
a. Exceptions may be made during the course of a case before the Imperial Judex, if said financial information is relevant as evidence.
b. Any said financial records, statements, or statistics shall still be available as needed to officials in the Imperial Government as provided for in Section B of this Chapter.

2. The preceding section shall not necessarily apply to any presentation of financial records, statements, or statistics in which individuals are not implicitly identified.

Edit: Forgot to add, let me know if it needs tweaking before I propose it.

[Andreas the Wise]

Speaking of which,

since Jess was Duke, shouldn't his funds go to Greg?

No. His funds he had before he was Duke. Some Duchies have a separate account that goes to the Duke (such as Kildare's Saenad) but not Yardistan, as far as I know ...

[Kaiseress Anandja I]

I really like this law.

[Jonas]

And how will the dukes tax there citizens if they can't even see there accounts?

[Kaiseress Anandja I]

Percentage? 200 Erbs per resident? There are solutions to that without showing account info to every citizen.

[Jonas]

Percentage? 200 Erbs per resident? There are solutions to that without showing account info to every citizen.

Booooooooorrrrrrrriiiiinnnnnggggg! You need to see the accounts, so you can make decisions.
Privacy in nations, by Mors! Needless if it comes to bank accounts.

[Scott of Hyperborea]

Can I suggest this law be opt-in instead of opt-out (ie, you must specifically request for your details to be private if you want them to be). It could be useful to have a ballpark idea of how much money everyone has so you know what prices to set for things.

[Erik Mortis]

Oh.. but that's the fun of it....

And Shyriath, you'll get paid once this goes before the Landsraad.

[Kostalan Rottsaa]

Perhaps there should be an option programmed into the bank? Then the law would only need to say that citizens and companies may opt to hide their balance, as Scott suggested.

[Shyriath]

Can I suggest this law be opt-in instead of opt-out (ie, you must specifically request for your details to be private if you want them to be). It could be useful to have a ballpark idea of how much money everyone has so you know what prices to set for things.

That's true. I'm somewhat inclined to let it stand as-is in spite of that, however, on the grounds that it would make it more like most real-world transactions; that is, for everyday purchases, most sellers don't know how much money THEIR individual customers have either, and have to figure out their prices by balancing a need to make money with an educated guess at what, on average, people seem to be willing to pay. (Of course, I don't know if we have enough of a market here to try to depend on market forces like that, but it'd be fun to try.)

At any rate, I second Kostalan's recommendation at having an easy-to-use option in the bank to hide/unhide financial information.

Edit: I am making slight changes in wording... "may" instead of "shall", and "explicitly" instead of "implicitly".