Choicepoint Roundup (Feb 28)
I accidentally published this too early, but given the nature of trackbacks, and other such privacy-invasive technologies, its too late. You know my secret. I accumulate and then (try to) post in the morning.
- Midnight Special asks “Where’s the accountability” and talks about government outsourcing and incentives in a well written post.
- Why Now has a couple of good posts, one on Who Owns Your Copyright, and another, Who Wins & Who Loses, asking why can’t these companies that collect data about you notice that you’re a victim of ID theft?
- Inbite claims Declan McCullagh said “Investors are worried about the possibility of new regulations curbing ChoicePoint’s business model (and future profitability).” At press time, Declan had not responded to a request for confirmation or a better URL. [Update: Declan’s quote.]
- When I look over my shoulder is a long, well thought through history of privacy by Lotus, Surviving a Dark Time.
- Michael Zimmer point to a Milwaukee Journal Sentinel article that points out that the old “big three” credit agencies are dripping with disdain for consumers trying to reach annualcreditreport.com. Following a link brings you to a blocking page, and apparently they failed to provide proper capacity for their phone banks. However, if you type in the URL https://www.annualcreditreport.com/cra/index.jsp, or copy and paste it, it will work. I suggest you call or write, rather than applying online, to make them spend the money on printing and mailing your report. It’s only a little, but every penny comes out of the profit they make gossiping about you.
- Finally, today’s Two Minutes Hate comes to us from Public Domain Progress
Credit Reporting Agencies Blocking Referrals…
Emergent Chaos has this advice…
I didn’t have much difficulty using annualcreditreport.com. It’s not real obvious, but you just select your state where it says, “Find out when Free Annual Credit Reports are available in your state through this website.” This takes you to the page where you can then look at your credit reports. The other links on the front page are a runaround.
The MJS article you link to claims they are blocking referrer links, but I followed the referrer link in that article without any problems. Anyone else see any evidence that they are doing this?