[privacy] FTC Under Fire as Credit Bureaus Sell Consumers' Data

["Paul Ferguson" <fergdawg () netzero net>]

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Via USA Today.

[snip]

Federal Trade Commission Chairman Deborah Platt Majoras says her agency has
done a credible job regulating the Big Three credit bureaus.

But the boom — and now bust — of subprime mortgages is fueling
criticism that the FTC under Platt Majoras has given Experian, Equifax and
TransUnion too much latitude to profit from the sale of credit data to
lenders and consumers.

In February, the National Association of Mortgage Brokers lambasted the FTC
for giving the credit bureaus tacit approval to keep selling listings —
called "trigger lists" — containing personal and financial data of
prospective borrowers. Some unscrupulous lenders used trigger lists to
contact people who recently filled out a loan application, and then pitched
them subprime mortgages, higher-priced loans aimed at people with spotty
credit histories but also marketed to borrowers with good credit.

Most applicants never knew the bureaus were placing them on trigger lists
and were surprised to be deluged by phone calls and e-mails for subprime
loans. These too-good-to-be-true offers came from brokers who skirted rules
requiring traditional lenders to make firm offers only in writing.

[snip]

More:
http://www.usatoday.com/money/companies/regulation/2007-12-16-ftc-chief-pla
tt-majoras_N.htm

Note: Looks like Majoras has a lot on her hands now, given the
fact that she also refuses to recuse herself from Google-DoubleClick
oversight, too, despite the fact that Majoras' husband is a partner
at the Jones Day law firm -- the same firm hired represent the
company before the FTC.

- - ferg

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--
"Fergie", a.k.a. Paul Ferguson
 Engineering Architecture for the Internet
 fergdawg(at)netzero.net
 ferg's tech blog: http://fergdawg.blogspot.com/

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