Who Do You Trust To Protect Your Privacy?

Folks, anyone who has a credit card, anyone who has an education loan, anyone who owns real estate, anyone who drives a car --you're all at risk.

Yes, I suppose you could try J.J. Luna's approach from his book on "How to become invisible" --but for most who have families this is simply not practical.

No, what we really need is a way to watch the watchers. And when they screw up, they must be held accountable. Right now, it's somehow my responsibility to ensure that THEY have the correct information about me. Wha? How about fining them for every incorrect record about a member of the public? Why should I help them do their business better? That's extortion!

People should be aware that they can receive their credit report free from each of the bureaus once a year from http://www.annualcreditreport.com

While currently only the western and midwestern states have this available to them, southern and eastern states will become available in the coming months. Unfortunately what most of the media outlets are missing in this fraud-awareness craze are the third-parties that provide a similar service...

ChoiceTrust (by ChoicePoint) tracks home and automobile insurance claims, employment history, and residential rental history.
http://www.choicetrust.com

ISO also tracks property and automobile insurance
losses, through its A-Plus reports.
http://www.iso.com/

MIB compiles and maintains records about individual life, health, and disability insurance policies.
http://www.mib.com/

ChexSystems (consumerdebit.com) tracks checking account histories. https://www.consumerdebit.com/consumerinfo/us/en/chexsystems/index.htm

The Center For Democracy & Technology also provides a clear-cut portal for opting out of solicitations and keeping up on your privacy...
http://optout.cdt.org/

These services along with keeping a minimal paper trail (ideally shredded before disposing of) at home, office, or in your wallet/purse will go a long way in making you a less visible target and able to recover quickly should it occur.

Tony Pedretti
TransUnion Corporation

I honestly wasn't aware of ChoicePoint nor LexusNexus. As for banks, I've been convinced for years that they sell certain private information to the myriad companies that send me endless junkmail - regular mail, not email - to my post office box. I know the credit reporting agencies do, have been for years.

Who do I trust? If I don't personally know them and believe them to be trustworty, I don't. Period. But, what choice do I have? Privacy isn't an option in todays connected world. There's not much excitement in my financial history so I don't really worry about it that much.

What can we as comsumers do? Not much I',m sure. As soon as the info had been sold or distributed the first time it was already too late. We have all jumped on the internet bandwagon, enjoying all this fantastic information available at the touch of a button, all of it virtually free. We really have no one but ourselves to blame.