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Quote: contained massive data sets belonging to Alteryx partner Experian, a consumer credit reporting agency
There's a special place in Hell for these companies. Preying on people's fears - usually the people without the resources to defend themselves - by providing a "service" to track their credit score, with a nice little side business of using all that personal data for marketing. And they don't even care enough about the people they are providing this service to treat their data with any care.
The best bit: people pay them for this "service".
cheers
Chris Maunder
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The rest of the world gets by just fine without credit reporting agencies. Why do we even need them in the USA? Consider the potential damage caused by the Equifax breach. We will have less privacy breaches without these agencies. If the federal government does not know how to protect the privacy of their citizens - go and ask the Swiss or Belgians.
Get me coffee and no one gets hurt!
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Cornelius Henning wrote: The rest of the world gets by just fine without credit reporting agencies.
Ummm... where did you get that idea? AFAIK nearly every nation uses some form of public / private credit reporting systems.
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Hmmm.... It will be interesting if CP members in other countries will report if they have anything as invasive as USA credit reporting agencies where they are. Here any company can procure a comprehensive report on your credit history over the past years, showing how you paid your bills month - by - month.
And as the Equifax disaster showed: You cannot trust these companies to keep your personal data safe.
Get me coffee and no one gets hurt!
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It's 5 years old but this article[^] paints a fairly standard picture across many countries.
While I agree with much of your sentiment - it's not just a US problem.
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Interesting, thanks!
Quote: South Africa has a robust credit reporting system,
When I left that country 20 years ago, there was no such system in operation.
Get me coffee and no one gets hurt!
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Indeed, the UK has allowed scum like Experian and Equifax to run their filthy rackets here for a great many years.
98.4% of statistics are made up on the spot.
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PeejayAdams wrote: Indeed, the UK has allowed scum like Experian and Equifax to run their filthy rackets here for a great many years.
Not sure what that means.
Before consolidated credit:
- A home loan could take weeks to process.
- A business loan required one to 'sell' the idea to the loan officer.
- There was no such thing as buying anything on credit unless the vendor company itself 'financed' that.
- One could skip out on bad loans, move somewhere else, and get even more loans.
- Other loan products, like home equity, did not exist. (One could however take out so many secondary loans on a property that it would end up being fraud.)
It follows that:
1. No single vested entity would should be doing this. I don't want JCPenny telling Walmart whether I am a good risk or not.
2. Companies that do this, like all companies, need to make a profit.
If you have a better solution that continues to support all of the current business needs then you should create a business plan and start selling it.
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My issue is not with 3rd party credit checks per se.
I do have a real problem, though, with the likes of Equifax:
a) selling their reports to the subjects thereof when that data should be freely available to them.
and especially:
b) selling people credit products from some "carefully selected" usurer or other by telling them that signing up for those products will improve the credit scores that they create. The message is basically "Sorry, Mr. Pleb, your credit rating, as judged by us, is a bit sub-prime at the minute but don't worry, if you sign up to this 1350% APR credit card, we'll knock it up by a point or two. Thanks for the commish, love from your great buddies at Equifax. P.S. Don't forget to keep paying us a monthly subscription so we can provide you with even more amazing offers!"
98.4% of statistics are made up on the spot.
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Funny Story:
Long ago in order to increase my chances of getting a good mortgage deal, I signed up with Experian here in the UK.
I never really intended to keep the thing going, and it was enough that I could show the lender I'd joined an agency (As well as getting insured for EVERYTHING  ) for them to give me the mortgage (This was literally months before the 2008 Banking collapse).
Anyway, since I never really intended to stick with them, I used duff data where possible, such as 0123456789 for my phone number, and an old Yahoo disposable email that I use for sending all my junk email too.
Fast forward to today, I still have the account, because as Iv'e found out, it's actually quite useful to be able to print off a credit score every now and then and wave it in front of HP providers etc.
Beacuse of this, over the years I changed my email to a more upto date one, and filled in at least my fixed line number.
Here's where it gets amusing.
I can guarantee I get about 5 or 6 "MAJOR THREAT" alerts from the company, per month, alerting me to the fact there has been a "MAJOR BREECH" of my personal and private data, and that they are doing everything they can to contain it, so that I don't get affected by identity fraud.
The alerts?
There all any time some one uses "0123456789" as a telephone number, or provides "me, 1 a house, a street, a town, AB1 2CD" as an address, in some credit check, or if these details are found on line 
They are still watching for my up dated details too, and Iv'e had a couple of hits on my land line, over the years, but that initial data I entered keeps coming back to haunt me....
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Peter Shaw wrote: I can guarantee I get about 5 or 6 "MAJOR THREAT" alerts from the company, per month, alerting me to the fact there has been a "MAJOR BREECH" of my personal and private data, and that they are doing everything they can to contain it, so that I don't get affected by identity fraud.
The alerts?
There all any time some one uses "0123456789" as a telephone number, or provides "me, 1 a house, a street, a town, AB1 2CD" as an address, in some credit check, or if these details are found on line
 Awesome! Thanks, you just made my day .
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In this case, "Haunt" is more amusing than harmful, isn't it?
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It is indeed
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Hi All,
Sorry to sound like a refugge from Game of Thrones but our Xmas party is coming up tonight. Work is slowing. 
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time for a meeting: go out for a coffee with a co-worker, or go home and meet the wife.
Signature ready for installation. Please Reboot now.
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We had ours last week and work is still slow here, All I have to do till new year is a data dictionary and a functional design document and they is as boring as hell.
Every day, thousands of innocent plants are killed by vegetarians.
Help end the violence EAT BACON
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I just had my last message along the lines of "my item didn't arrive, please refund"
How come all the items I order from ebay arrive?
Its not the community it once was years ago. I hope the Lounge doesn't go the same way, or I warn you I will quit.
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KennethKennedy wrote: How come all the items I order from ebay arrive?
A bit like Windows update; how come they always work on my system?
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It reminds me of Windows Me: how come it always worked flawlessly on my system?
GCS d-- s-/++ a- C++++ U+++ P- L+@ E-- W++ N+ o+ K- w+++ O? M-- V? PS+ PE- Y+ PGP t+ 5? X R+++ tv-- b+(+++) DI+++ D++ G e++ h--- ++>+++ y+++* Weapons extension: ma- k++ F+2 X
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the updates work because the system not used for work?
Signature ready for installation. Please Reboot now.
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More importantly it is used for personal gain.
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That brings back the memories, oh the memories.
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Maybe, if you sell weird stuff, you get weird buyers?
... such stuff as dreams are made on
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