asylvain@felix.UUCP (Alvin "the Chipmunk" Sylvain) (03/22/91)
Trip Martin, of night@rpt.edu graces us with: > >In article > > <1991Mar11.070712.4223@cs.ucla.edu>, > > gast@lanai.cs.ucla.edu (David Gast) writes: > >> > >> Anyway, when did I ever make Equifax my agent and ask them to sell info > >> about me? > >> > >You freely gave information that is valuable and Equifax is selling > >it as the agent of the person you gave it to or as their own agent. > > More like he was forced to give that information or be denied service. Hmmmmmm .... I wouldn't quite use the word "force" here. I mean, it's not like Equifax is selling anything necessary to your life, liberty and persuit of happiness, are they? I suppose that you'd call it "force" if Toyota simply _insisted_ that you give them some of your _money_ before they gave you a car, hmmm? Oh, oh, oh, oh, what a feeling! If you don't want Equifax selling your info, try asking them nicely not to. They may say yes, or they may say no. I don't know their policy, but many companies will honor your request. No matter what, if you don't like the answer, and if it's that important to you, punish them. _Keep_your_money!_ (You probably should've put it into CD's anyway!) -- =========== Opinions are Mine, Typos belong to /usr/ucb/vi =========== "We're sorry, but the reality you have dialed is no longer in service. Please check the value of pi, or see your SysOp for assistance." =============== Factual Errors belong to /usr/local/rn =============== asylvain@felix.UUCP uunet!hplabs!felix!asylvain
woolf@isi.edu (Suzanne Woolf) (03/29/91)
In article <159401@felix.UUCP> asylvain@felix.UUCP (Alvin "the Chipmunk" Sylvain) writes: >Trip Martin, of night@rpt.edu graces us with: >> >In article >> > <1991Mar11.070712.4223@cs.ucla.edu>, >> > gast@lanai.cs.ucla.edu (David Gast) writes: >> >> >> >> Anyway, when did I ever make Equifax my agent and ask them to sell info >> >> about me? >> >> >> >You freely gave information that is valuable and Equifax is selling >> >it as the agent of the person you gave it to or as their own agent. >> >> More like he was forced to give that information or be denied service. > >Hmmmmmm .... I wouldn't quite use the word "force" here. I mean, it's >not like Equifax is selling anything necessary to your life, liberty and >persuit of happiness, are they? Nope. Equifax probably hasn't sold him anything at all. I've never done business directly with Equifax; chances are you haven't either; information he gave to his bank/lender/whoever as part of a business transaction he made with them was sold to Equifax by them-- not him. >I suppose that you'd call it "force" if Toyota simply _insisted_ that you >give them some of your _money_ before they gave you a car, hmmm? Oh, >oh, oh, oh, what a feeling! No. Toyota gives me something, I give them something, we're both free to do it and we both do it with prior, informed consent. When Toyota then turns around and makes the information I gave them as their customer in a business relationship available to a third party, without limitation and without my knowledge or consent, that's different. This is where the argument really starts: should there be a third choice in addition to "Give them the information so they can do whatever they want" and "Don't do business with anyone who wants information about me." I think so. There are situations in which it would be fine with me to have a credit record; I willingly authorized my mortgage lender to ask the other people I do business with if I pay my bills. I even paid a fee so they could do so. It seems reasonable to make a distinction between authorizing specific uses, which I'd be willing to pay for or allow as part of doing business with someone, and a blanket authorization to do whatever anyone wants. You're right that "forced to give information or be denied service" is a questionable choice of words above. But I think it's important to keep in mind that in the case being discussed the individual was not a customer of Equifax, never had been, and did not have the option of deciding not to give them the information. >If you don't want Equifax selling your info, try asking them nicely not >to. They may say yes, or they may say no. I don't know their policy, >but many companies will honor your request. No matter what, if you don't >like the answer, and if it's that important to you, punish them. This is always a good idea: try reason first. Someone's already posted a followup with an address people can write to if they want to be taken off Equifax's marketing lists. But also realize that there are plenty of cases where the people who have the information didn't get it from you and don't care what you think. It's not currently feasible to punish companies in this situation: you can't refuse to do business with them since you're not their customer, and there's no recognition currently by law or by custom that they shouldn't have the information in the first place, or that they should be limited by your preferences in what they do with it. Do you think that agreeing to buy a car from Toyota should implicitly include giving your consent to having information about you propagated to whomever they choose, indefinitely? --Suzanne woolf@isi.edu