"You are what you buy." To an extent, this phrase has never proven to be more apt, for, in our commercial world of credit cards, loans and online shopping, what you do with your money is all part of your credit report. To a financial institution, your credit report is your identity. However, combined with public information now easily accessible on the Web, one is seemingly just a click away from complete disclosure. If it were just "Big Brother" watching, one might not feel as naked.
Theft of Financial Information
One's credit used to be based entirely upon their personal reputation, either from friends and neighbors, and/or a network of trusted traders. However, after years of regulation and adaptation, credit reporting agencies fine-tuned their dossiers to include just information on an individual's financial history (provided by banks, lenders, and other financial institutions), summing their findings in assigning a score of creditworthiness. While the inner workings of this algorithm are a closely guarded secret, it is based on:
account balances
amount of available credit
amount of money owed
payment history
personal net worth
salary.
Your credit report contains little to no personal information. While the specific items you buy (save a home or vehicle through a specific lender) are not listed, it is safe to say that what you do with your money and the manner in which you spend it (cash or credit) is part of your financial profile.
Personal Information, Now Public Information
Credit reporting agencies may be contracted to create an Investigative Consumer Report (ICR) on an individual. This ICR is filtered from personal interviews in an effort to learn details regarding character, reputation, personal characteristics and mode of living.
However, these reports cannot, under current federal law, be attached to credit reports. Further, three days after requesting an ICR, those submitting the request must notify the subject of inquiry, who in turn has the right to request a written explanation of the breadth of and motivation behind the investigation.
Part of the nation's transparency is inherited from the foundations of the government, in that "we, the people" are expected to keep an eye on the judicial, law enforcement, and political system. Court records are open in an effort to increase the accountability of judges, and the same can be said of the police and criminal records. However, gone are the days when one had to go physically view the records at the county courthouse or Department of Public Records.
The Internet has made public information, though private in content, readily available to anyone. Arguably, with such availability, it is no longer public, but super-public. Many groups fear that such easy access will lead to a rapid decrease in individuals willing to exercise their judicial and legal rights for fear that their personal information will be published online and result in:
damage to reputation
identity theft
the sale of information to third parties
risks to personal safety.
These groups are not calling for the sudden seclusion of public information, but rather that changes be made to the manner in which the information is made available.
They favor censoring online content to exclude personal information (i.e. details of a divorce, home addresses, lifestyle behavior) and automated identity protection to remove information such as account numbers, Social Security numbers, etc. Additionally, they seek restricted access and revisions to laws governing background data checks to increase investigator accountability and refine data access and sale.
About Us