TELECOM Digest OnLine - Sorted: Re: Los Angeles Times: Low-Tech Methods Used in Data Theft

Re: Los Angeles Times: Low-Tech Methods Used in Data Theft

Dave Garland (dave.garland@wizinfo.com)
Wed, 16 Mar 2005 17:20:36 -0600

It was a dark and stormy night when hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com wrote:

> If it were up to me:

> 1) Their own credit report would be free to consumers.

In the US, this part is already true, sort of, partially. If you are
turned down for credit, the place that turned you down must tell you
the company that issued the report, and the credit bureau must give
you a free copy.

You are entitled to a free report annually from each of the "big 3"
agencies (TransUnion, Experian, Equifax) by going to
http://www.annualcreditreport.com/. You can get them all at the same
time, but you don't have to (usually it would be a better idea to
space them out throughout the year). This isn't entirely in place
yet, it's being rolled out geographically, it works for people in the
West and Midwest now, the South will be added in June, the East in
September.

The reports do indicate when companies got reports on you. It's a lot
more frequent than most people would think. But it's (maybe a long
time) after the fact that you find out. It's still very easy for
unscrupulous individuals to get access to these reports. And this law
doesn't cover sleaze like ChoicePoint.

Of course, that's just a start. They still claim they aren't
responsible for damages to you that might be caused by their sale of
incorrect or untrue information. Judging by ChoicePoint's case, there
doesn't seem to be any penalty (except bad publicity, if it becomes
public) for negligent handling of your data. And going by reports, it
is still very difficult for the consumer to get corrections made.

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