cube_rat said:
Yeah, I know they need a consent before conducting credit or background checks. I don't think that matters these days. Or at least times are changing. Anyone can get information on people relatively easy these days using internet services such as Intelus (sp?). My current employer used an internet background service for which I promptly ordered my file from the same service for $60-70 bucks. To my suprise, I found inaccruate address information, etc AND a link the the megan's law web-site which indicated numerous convicted sex offenders that lived near me. What the hell??
Can you imagine what a potential employer may infer from such linked information
Who is controlling this information which sits in disparate systems AND can be accessed by anyone for a small fee? At least, we as consumers can correct our information with the three credit bureaus.
Bottom line is, I don't like the fact that my personal information is all over the planet. It's shocking to find my history (albeit high level) in a one off system/site such as intelus which can be accessed by anyone. Okay, I made my point....
Congratulations, you've just landed feet first into why I'm concerned about data collection and aggregation of any kind.
Not that I think i'm interesting enough to have someone looking at what i'm doing, but that its collected and correlated with incorrect, invalid or unrelated information and most people never even have a look at it. And its not even commonly sourced so you cant fix one set of bad data and have the fixes propagate.
Hell, our credit reports are screwed up enough and the data sources for those are pretty GOOD. When we first checked my wifes, they had linked employers she never worked for and places she never lived at. Mine showed "May operate under one or more aliases", because a credit card company issued me a card with the wrong middle initial once, had an incorrect company name I worked for, my old address spelled wrong.
Try collecting your shopping and viewing habits, library books you check out, how you use your credit cards and consolidate all of that into a 'marketing profile' for sale.
Its happening now, your profile is wrong, the data is wrong, and some other peoples stuff is probably stuck to yours.
Intelus is just one of dozens of such sites that will give out your financial history, criminal record, property records, judgements, etc.
Hell, I plugged in my name to a site once and while it had very little interesting stuff regarding me, I saw the name of the guy who did some painting for me a few years ago (same last name). By clicking on it I saw that he hadnt been paying his child support payments, a couple of other pieces of fairly embarrassing informational tidbits, his name, address, phone # etc.
Rather disturbing...but welcome to the 21st century!!!
