31–40 of 347 posts
Of course, we aren’t the customers for these spying companies. But it is surprising that the total lack of security isn’t a deal-breaker for their actual customers. I mean if you can basically impersonate anybody using this service, what is the point of using it?
If identity theft were to get so common that the data became statistically unreliable, we would be long past the point that even Congress would feel compelled to do something about it.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
There’s no such thing as identity theft, it is impossible to steal an identity, the person still has their identity. It is impersonation. The victim is the entity that has fallen for the impersonation (likely a bank, etc), the perpetrator is the one who did the impersonation, and the impersonated person is just some uninvolved third party. I know it is pedantic but it is important to keep in mind because dumping the…
I completely agree. But if I recall correctly, they've set up the law so that if they get duped, you're on the hook for whatever they got duped into giving the impersonator. That's the biggest problem.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Although I think it is more accurate to call them a victim of something like slander by the credit agency, in that case. I mean, I’m not sure exactly what the laws are around slander, I wouldn’t be surprised if there was some cutout for cases in which the person actually believed the lies they were repeating, but if an organization represents itself as an expert in people’s trustworthiness it obviously has a heighten…
Credit reporting agencies have immunity from slander claims unless you can prove malice.
Experian reminds me of enshittification, except it never had any interest in providing actual value to the general public to betray, so started off one step further along the process in a way. No individual in a personal capacity ever wanted to do business with Experian, like they wanted to buy an iPhone or something. You're introduced to the unpleasant fact of its existence at some point. They don't have anything yo…
Things that deal in you.
They make money from you, indirectly.
You have no business or social relation with them.
You didn't vote for them.
They have immense power to harm you.
You have no recourse.
You may not even know they exist.
Until recently this was the preserve of a few government agencies that had a very narrow focus on a few "persons of interest". Today it is every dime store startup in "big data", search, spammers, social network, and the entire grubby, yellow maggoty underbelly of "surveillance capitalism" and all the mushrooms that grow on it.
So far the promised "benefits" of this have never materialised. Will we be able to keep pretending "nobody cares" as public awareness, and governments' will to enact legislation grows? At some point surely "credit agencies" and their ilk will essentially be outlawed under a dozen different digital rights acts.
Of course, we aren’t the customers for these spying companies. But it is surprising that the total lack of security isn’t a deal-breaker for their actual customers. I mean if you can basically impersonate anybody using this service, what is the point of using it?
can you opt out? is there even a choice at all? where i live I can’t opt out of Experian or other credit rating services.
From tiny little mom-and-pop shops, to FAANG giants, nobody is giving me the opportunity to say "NO that's NOT me!". And though it's a "verification" email, typically account is usable and vast majority of functionality is allowed even without verification. So I get to vicariously and angrily "enjoy" the follow-up emails and updates while the users gamble, purchase, sell, review, invest, write, game et cetera using my email address.
Boo to this, I tell ya, boo!
My Experian was hijacked, unfrozen, and used to get a $100k loan from Ford Credit. Took me ages to clean up. Bastards.
This sounds like it was used to get a vehicle - which are fairly trackable things. How did the ordeal unfold and conclude?
Given there are 3 credit bureaus, is there a way to avoid having a credit score at one of the credit bureaus? I think that's a way that we as consumers could try to increase competition in the field. I did some Googling and it didn't seem like there's an easy option.
Without it (also without a sufficiently high number), most avenues to housing are cut off
I tried to log into their website the other day to just get my profile set up and see what was going on in my account. Their site was so broken, I couldn't even get logged in. How is anyone going to become me if I can't even become myself?