A car dealership faxed over to my place of employment a fax that said my down payment check bounced. I work at a school so this fax machine is used publicly. Is this a privacy act violation? The check did not bounce. I had put a "stop payment" on the check so the inforamtion in the fax was not only personal, but wrong.

NO, not if you gave them that fax number to use. That implied concent.
And a FYI... that check actually DID bounce and that was because YOU put a stop payment on it... and you are legally liable for any bounce fees incured as well as charges the dealer may add.

Writing out a check then putting a stop payment can also constitute an intent for commit fraud depending on factors that have not been discussed here.

What privacy act? There is a federal act (passed in 1974) which governs how agencies of the federal government use personal info. But a car dealership is not an agency of the federal government.

There may be local acts but generally they dictate how governments use info and usually don't apply to private business.

A car dealership faxed over to my place of employment a fax that said my down payment check bounced. I work at a school so this fax machine is used publically. Is this a privacy act violation? The check did not bounce. I had put a "stop payment" on the check so the inforamtion in the fax was not only personal, but wrong.


How did they get the number?

If you gave them the number no,

And there is not a legal term "bounce" to them, it was returned unpaid. So it could be a correct term to use.

Depending on the issues, it is not always legal to stop payment, we also need to address why this was done