Slashdot Mirror
U.S. Govt. Stipulates Free Annual Credit Reports
alue writes "Under the terms of the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions (FACT) Act, passed last year, and amid growing concerns over privacy and disclosure of sensitive financial data, the three leading credit reporting agencies must provide consumers with a free summary once a year of all credit information on file for that person. Consumers in 13 Western states will be able to grab free online copies of their credit reports starting Wednesday."
I HIGHLY doubt this is a win for the abused... er, I mean, consumer. I properly filed for a free copy of my credit report from experian (NOT those rape you FreeCreditReport.moreSpam places) and started recieving specific junk mail and telemarketing which I was free of before.
So, what does "free" mean? Free from cost? Free from marketing? Free from being spied on?
The link in the story just looks like another phishing scam to me. Nothing about the site says, "No really, we're the official one that's not gonna sell all your information to whomever wants it." What's "official" about it?
What would be a consumer win is that the credit agencies automatically send out annual credit reports along with a report of who looked at your credit during the last year and EXACTLY what they saw.
Between big business and big goverment, the little guy has no hope.
Democrats and Republicans only disagree about how to enslave you
there's some neocon advantage. like they insist on making your credit easily available to the individual, and a nice side effect is it's very easy for them to get a copy too, which will tie in nicely with all the other records they have on you.