Mrs. Zap, with all due respect, what you signed was a release to allow your employer to check your credit history. You can pull up the same exact reports from Equifax, Transunion and Experian yourself (and for free once per year at http://www.annualcreditreport.com) and see what they can see. These reports do not disclose what you buy (ok, they can see the amount of your mortgage or car loans if they are in your name) on a regular basis or your buying behavior as a consumer. They are not being granted access to your monthly credit card statements.

 

thanks steve...

its all a matter of public record i guess

if ya wanna dig deep enough....

...zap!

 

The problem is, your credit history isn't always accurate. Up until a year ago, one report had an old mortage that had been paid off listed as a car loan in default.

The law does allow (with your written consent) a background check including consumer credit reports, such reports don't show that you bought a hamburger down the road yesterday though, so it's not like their tracking your purchases.

The real problem is, the company is required by law to tell you if they took adverse action against you based on the results of the report, but companies are notorious for lying and saying it was a generic decision based on general info blah blah blah.

Face it, America's privacy is going down the toilet, you're being bought and sold on the open market and you aren't getting a share of the profits.

Maybe Bush should issue one of his "executive orders" granting citizens a share of the profits from the sale of their personal information.