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Tell HN: Salary data is for sale

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Re: Tell HN: Salary data is for sale

#491

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The current oligopoly of the big three credit bureaus is a travesty and needs substantial reform. That being said, abolishing the concept of a consumer credit report entirely is a terrible idea. It is a fact that different people simply present different risks to a lender in their likelihood of default. Having actual data about a person's previous repayment history is extremely predictive of their future default prob…

The U.S. financial system worked just fine before credit scores became a thing in 1989.

Credit scores were invented in the 1950s. I’d estimate that the US financial system has improved substantially since then, in both absolute and relative terms.

“In 1956, engineer Bill Fair teamed up with mathematician Earl Isaac to create Fair, Isaac and Company, with the goal of creating a standardized, impartial credit scoring system. Within two years, they had begun selling their first credit scoring system.”

You might recognize the names Fair and Isaac as the F and I in FICO.

https://www.opploans.com/oppu/articles/a-brief-history-of-cr...

Re: Tell HN: Salary data is for sale

#492
post #88

NOTE: It is possible to freeze access to your employment data here: https://employees.theworknumber.com/employee-data-freeze That being said, it doesn't stop employers from continuing to hand Equifax your data on a gold platter, and therefore does nothing to protect you from the inevitable data breach that will result in Equifax being required to give everyone affected $0.36 or one year of free credit monitoring.

Wow placing a freeze requires filling out a PDF form, attaching a scan of your ID, and then sending it in over email, mail, or fax. The PDF lacks built in form fields you can type in. The extra friction is probably a feature: https://assets.equifax.com/wfs/theworknumber/assets/twn_Empl... (the exif data on that PDF shows the name of the employee that created it and that they used Word 2010...) The Equifax CCPA reques…

With GDPR you could just send them a formless deletion request.

There are good parts in GDPR for sure.

Re: Tell HN: Salary data is for sale

#493
Damn, my entire history is there, down to the cent... base pay, bonuses, everything. I can't even get this old data from my employer's intranet. Such BS.

Can anyone confirm prospective employers actually pull this before making an offer?

Re: Tell HN: Salary data is for sale

#494
post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wow placing a freeze requires filling out a PDF form, attaching a scan of your ID, and then sending it in over email, mail, or fax. The PDF lacks built in form fields you can type in. The extra friction is probably a feature: https://assets.equifax.com/wfs/theworknumber/assets/twn_Empl... (the exif data on that PDF shows the name of the employee that created it and that they used Word 2010...) The Equifax CCPA reques…

With GDPR you could just send them a formless deletion request. There are good parts in GDPR for sure.

With GDPR there is no way this could be allowed.

Unfortunately they'd certainly be registered in Ireland and Irish Privacy agency doesn't hand out notable fines ...

Re: Tell HN: Salary data is for sale

#495

Not just Equifax. There are any number of consultancies that collect salary (and other compensation/benefits) data from many companies and then share that information with all their clients. It's used as a method of putting downward pressure on salaries without explicitly colluding.

Isn't distributed collusion just collusion by another name? I keep hearing the argument that you can't trick the law by technological means. This seems to be an attempt at doing that.

Re: Tell HN: Salary data is for sale

#496

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When I submit the myprivacy.equifax.com validation it hangs at "Processing..." indefinitely. #AbolishCreditAgencies

The current oligopoly of the big three credit bureaus is a travesty and needs substantial reform. That being said, abolishing the concept of a consumer credit report entirely is a terrible idea. It is a fact that different people simply present different risks to a lender in their likelihood of default. Having actual data about a person's previous repayment history is extremely predictive of their future default prob…

> Used wisely

When does that ever happen? Lending and borrowing are always at the root of every economic crisis. National debt of countries are already astronomically large and will only keep growing.

Just abolish credit as well. If it means the economy will grow slower, so be it.

Re: Tell HN: Salary data is for sale

#497

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The U.S. financial system worked just fine before credit scores became a thing in 1989.

Yes, but probably by being much more conservative and relying on the branch managers to have a close working relationship, or long standing banking relationship with the people seeking credit. When that gets more automated - i.e. giving credit to somebody you've never met, then a centralized automated system for verifying trustworthiness is also needed to compensate. It may even have the net effect of allowing some p…

Nothing is stopping anyone from lending, afaik, on other basises. Basees? Ba...sis.

Re: Tell HN: Salary data is for sale

#498

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The current oligopoly of the big three credit bureaus is a travesty and needs substantial reform. That being said, abolishing the concept of a consumer credit report entirely is a terrible idea. It is a fact that different people simply present different risks to a lender in their likelihood of default. Having actual data about a person's previous repayment history is extremely predictive of their future default prob…

> Used wisely When does that ever happen? Lending and borrowing are always at the root of every economic crisis. National debt of countries are already astronomically large and will only keep growing. Just abolish credit as well. If it means the economy will grow slower, so be it.

>Abolish credit

Expand?

I and probably you are probably working in arrears for our employers. That is, we don't get paid until after the work is done. That is extending our employers a credit line. The same applies for rent, for utilities, for phone data, for taxes...

Credit is at the root of every economic crisis because credit is money.

Re: Tell HN: Salary data is for sale

#499
Salary data is pretty valuable.

Someone should make a site (like glass door) where existing employees post salary information and other non-nda breaking information, and people who want it pay them for it (with the site taking a cut)

Why are we giving it away for free anyway?

Re: Tell HN: Salary data is for sale

#500

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The current oligopoly of the big three credit bureaus is a travesty and needs substantial reform. That being said, abolishing the concept of a consumer credit report entirely is a terrible idea. It is a fact that different people simply present different risks to a lender in their likelihood of default. Having actual data about a person's previous repayment history is extremely predictive of their future default prob…

The U.S. financial system worked just fine before credit scores became a thing in 1989.

No, it didn't, it worked that WASP attendees of the bank manager's church got good rates and anyone born on the wrong side of town got turned away.
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