I spent the weekend researching data removal methods and decided to start with my credit report. I’m not even going to get into all of the alarming privacy invasions that popped up during this process. But when I got to the experian report, I was met with T&C box that says I have to hand over my phone carrier info and it wouldn’t let me proceed without doing so. The bureaus are legally required to give you one free report a year. It’s bad enough that these companies are even given rights to my data and now they’re using it to request further information.
I’m just so angry, frustrated, and violated.
There is a way to request it by mail, the phone thing is just a quicker way for them to verify you are who you say you are because they ALREADY know all the information, they just want to make sure YOU know the right phone number. If you use the wrong number they might give you an alternative option, or it will eventually tell you the only option is by US mail.
Pretty much anyone who has your phone number can use that information to look you up in a database, experian just spells it out because they get hacked so often its a liability for them to store any information at all, In a normal functioning society such a company would fail and never be taken seriously, but in capitalist america they get to decide if you’re worth lending money to, WHAT A COUNTRY!!!
This is not a verification request. If you look at the screenshot, they are explicitly asking to have access to the intimate data that my cellular carrier is willing to transfer to them, given my perpetual release of it. Probably because of an existing bargain between the two parties on how much each will bid if one takes on the other’s liability (phone company advertises they won’t release all your data forever > but phone company promotes credit company > credit company boldly requests usage data > credit company pays phone company and both win).
These are corporations who make their money by selling peoples’ data. Offering a free copy of the report is and always was just a pacifier for the privacy advocates who wanted legislation. They don’t actually have any interest in providing credit reports to the “consumer” securely or within the legally required timeframe. Their interest is in obtaining more data and in the security/validity of their own harvested datum, which are assets to them.