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How Goldman Sachs Made More Than $1B with Credit Scores

wsj.com

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Re: How Goldman Sachs Made More Than $1B with Credit Scores

#31

Post by smokeyj »

FTA wrote: post #17

People are always terrified of the Big Brother from government, but any time I have to verify my identity with questions like "What street of the listed have you lived on?" or "Which of these banks do you have a loan with?" it makes me realize how much aggregated data private (especially financial) companies have. I can imagine these corporations selling that info for good money, like how many transactions you make a…

I don't say this often, but this observation is pure garbage. People who live in terror of "big brother" aren't in terror because they may be offered an unwanted credit card, or because it's their precious privacy that they value. They're in terror because their government wants to silence them and kill them. Maybe for who they associate with, their religious belief, sexual orientation or their political beliefs.

On the topic of Big Brother, there was a law passed called The Patriot Act that required stringent KYC regulations.. Meaning financial institutions are required to ask these stupid questions and keep tabs on you. The government is forcing companies to keep tabs on you, along with telecom and other industries - so they can siphon this data..

But whatever. Stupid conspiracy theorists. Probably dumb libertarians or something.

Re: How Goldman Sachs Made More Than $1B with Credit Scores

#34

Post by tomohawk »

a3n wrote: post #13
nojvek wrote: post #10

This is the wild west of information rape I guess. Companies buy companies who buy other companies. As an average customer you just don't know who has what interests and where your info is getting used. Even companies that started with noble goals like whatsapp ended up selling out to Facebook troves of private info. The only way I see things change is a holocaust level fuck up because people think they have nothing…

> The only way I see things change is a holocaust level fuck up ... ... that affects lawmakers and/or exposes national security secrets. I imagine there's a lot of clandestine spending that can be correlated and will eventually bubble up inadvertently.

Like this one?

http://www.computerworld.com/article/2941754/data-security/o...

Re: How Goldman Sachs Made More Than $1B with Credit Scores

#36

Post by ryanwaggoner »

zitterbewegung wrote: post #27
FTA wrote: post #17

People are always terrified of the Big Brother from government, but any time I have to verify my identity with questions like "What street of the listed have you lived on?" or "Which of these banks do you have a loan with?" it makes me realize how much aggregated data private (especially financial) companies have. I can imagine these corporations selling that info for good money, like how many transactions you make a…

A recent HN post about four square is that they pivoted to an API that tells you who is shopping and where. They use Instagram data . https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14052444

I believe Instagram is using their data.

Re: How Goldman Sachs Made More Than $1B with Credit Scores

#37

Post by tmarkovich »

FTA wrote: post #17

People are always terrified of the Big Brother from government, but any time I have to verify my identity with questions like "What street of the listed have you lived on?" or "Which of these banks do you have a loan with?" it makes me realize how much aggregated data private (especially financial) companies have. I can imagine these corporations selling that info for good money, like how many transactions you make a…

Check out companies like cardlytics and acxiom. Cardlytics basically provides the exact service you're wondering about.

Re: How Goldman Sachs Made More Than $1B with Credit Scores

#38

Post by rubyfan »

FT_intern wrote: post #29

Let's also not forget about the traditional finance companies (Chase, BAML, Citi, Wells Fargo, Amex, etc.). They sell your data and are a large source of the random credit card offers you receive. And you can't opt out.

You can opt out on the credit card offers.

https://www.optoutprescreen.com

Re: How Goldman Sachs Made More Than $1B with Credit Scores

#39

Post by user5994461 »

FTA wrote: post #17

People are always terrified of the Big Brother from government, but any time I have to verify my identity with questions like "What street of the listed have you lived on?" or "Which of these banks do you have a loan with?" it makes me realize how much aggregated data private (especially financial) companies have. I can imagine these corporations selling that info for good money, like how many transactions you make a…

As an European who've tried the American way. I have to say that it is clearly worse.

In the EU country I was, when i get a job/flat/whatever, I give a copy of my national ID and tax statement, and that's alright.

In the USA/UK, when I get a job/flat/whatever, noone trusts me or the government. I have to give plenty of documents and 5 years of history to a 3rd party shady check agency, that's gonna resell the data and spam me.

You can be sure that after a few years of your life, everything about you have been resold by these agencies and is available to the world: all your addresses, jobs, income, family situation, etc...

You American guys have hundreds of private big brothers incentivized against you, all because you wanted to avoid trusting a government. That didn't go well.

Re: How Goldman Sachs Made More Than $1B with Credit Scores

#40

Post by snarfy »

user5994461 wrote: post #39
FTA wrote: post #17

People are always terrified of the Big Brother from government, but any time I have to verify my identity with questions like "What street of the listed have you lived on?" or "Which of these banks do you have a loan with?" it makes me realize how much aggregated data private (especially financial) companies have. I can imagine these corporations selling that info for good money, like how many transactions you make a…

As an European who've tried the American way. I have to say that it is clearly worse. In the EU country I was, when i get a job/flat/whatever, I give a copy of my national ID and tax statement, and that's alright. In the USA/UK, when I get a job/flat/whatever, noone trusts me or the government. I have to give plenty of documents and 5 years of history to a 3rd party shady check agency, that's gonna resell the data an…

> all because you wanted to avoid trusting a government. That didn't go well.

I'm not so sure considering the current administration.

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