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From: glass@portia.Stanford.EDU (Brett Glass)
Newsgroups: comp.org.eff.talk
Subject: Re: credit bureau mailing lists
Summary: "We don't care; we don't have to. We're TRW."
Message-ID: <1991Jan26.221939.29708@portia.Stanford.EDU>
Date: 26 Jan 91 22:19:39 GMT
References: <70233@microsoft.UUCP>
Organization: What? Me, organized?
Lines: 43

The big problem, alas, is that the law authorizes -- in fact,
supports -- the collection of data on individuals, but only
restricts a few of its possible uses. The Fair Credit Reporting
Act begins with the following words:
 
(a) The Congress makes the following findings:
(1) The banking system is dependent upon fair and accurate credit reports....
(2) An elaborate mechanism has been developed for investigating and evaluating
    the credit worthiness, credit standing, credit capacity, character, and
    general reputation of consumers.
(3) Consumer reporting agencies have assumed a vital role in assembling
    and evaluating consumer credit and other information on consumers.
 
.....
 
In other words, the Act presupposes that the hoarding of all this
data on individuals is a Good Thing, and is more desirable than
presenting one's own credentials when one seeks credit. (This despite
the fact that checking credentials with individual businesses is now
well within reach of current technology.)
 
Then, in the interest of "fairness," the Act goes on to restrict the
conditions for release of, and the contents of, "consumer reports" --
reports to be used in determining worthiness for credit or employment.
However, the conditions under which a business can obtain such a
report on you are absurdly broad.  According to the Act, a credit
bureau an issue a report, without your permission, to anyone who
"...has a legitimate business need for the information in connection
with a business transaction involving the consumer."

What's worse, the act says NOTHING AT ALL to restrict distribution of
credit data for other purposes. Hence, a reporting agency can publish
anything it wants to about you so long as it doesn't fit the
definition of a "credit report."
 
Uncomfortable yet?

<BG>
-- 
"Beware when the great God lets loose a thinker on this planet.
 Then all things are at risk. It is as when a conflagration has
 broken out in a great city, and no man knows what is safe, or
 where it will end."                   -- Ralph Waldo Emerson