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Who's Hijacking Your Privacy?
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Information about you is being sold without your knowledge or consent. It’s an electronic version of dumpster diving where lenders buy leads from the three major credit bureaus. Within the industry this practice is referred to as buying “Trigger Leads”.
Here’s how it works. Let’s say we’re discussing your plans to get a mortgage and as a result, you authorize me to run a credit report. The minute I run your credit report, it triggers the sale of information about you to other lenders. The credit bureaus are selling your name, telephone number, address, and the fact that a mortgage lender or broker (such as myself) ran a credit report as part of a mortgage application.
That’s right, your information is hijacked and sold to potentially dozens of other lenders. Now this may not be a problem for you if you don’t mind receiving 44 phone calls a day from mortgage lenders.
And this doesn’t just apply to the mortgage industry. It happens in all credit markets and in the insurance industry. And it’s all perfectly legal.
The credit bureaus argue that this practice is in the consumer’s best interests because it will create competitive offers. That’s not how I see it. I’m in favor of consumer choice, but that’s not what this is. This is corporate choice. How ethical is it to sell your “data profile” without your knowledge or consent? It looks, sounds, and smells like a breach of privacy to me.
Do you want to do business with a lender that trades in your data? Are lenders that operate under these questionable practices worthy of your trust? Are they going to treat your personal data with the level of integrity that you demand? Identity theft is illegal – and I know that this isn’t identity theft (…maybe they’re just “borrowing” it for a little while). Apparently it’s OK to exploit and profit from your private financial matters?
In my opinion this is like your Internet Service Provider selling information about which websites you visited today. How would you feel if you got a barrage of phone calls and emails as a result of visiting an insurance or a car dealer’s website?
So how can you limit this practice from affecting you? Fortunately, you can opt out at https://www.OptOutPrescreen.com/opt_form.cgi or (888) 5-OPTOUT
I’d also recommend that you review whether or not your telephone numbers are on the National Do-Not-Call Registry. https://www.DoNotCall.gov or (888) 382-1222
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