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Comment by outoftacos | Hacker News Reader

I am still unsure as to how any of the credit bureaus exist legally at all, I never consented to having all my eggs in those three vulnerable baskets. Why is this my problem all of a sudden?

I get that consumer protections in the US are not very strong, but this just seems like a shady cartel in cahoots with the banks/insurance companies. Please tell me I'm grossly misunderstanding something here.

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It's a historical fluke. Credit bureaus trace back to agencies that compiled third-party reports on the creditworthiness of business persons. So long as the information collected is accurate (and not defamatory), this type of activity is protected under the first amendment.

See the first segment of this episode of the Backstory podcast for a retelling of how these early agencies worked: http://backstoryradio.org/shows/keeping-tabs-2016/

But then what happens if that information becomes inaccurate? (if your credit report shows credit events that aren't yours as a result of a fraud). Doesn't it become a form of defamation?

John oliver made a segment about this on how a person was denied a rental contract because one of these agencies said he was a terrorist.

Like really, equifax saying "his score is pretty good, but he IS a terrorist". Sometimes correcting those things take months.

It's ridiculous, but no property management company wants to risk a fine when the cost of checking the OFAC SDN list is so small. I'm not sure if we ever saw a decline due to the OFAC list, so I could easily see it would take a long time for something that unusual to be straightened out.

> I never consented to having all my eggs in those three vulnerable baskets

Your information does not just magically make it into the database of a credit bureau. It gets there via public record or because you allowed a creditor to report it to them. You are more than welcome to find a creditor that does not ask for or report to credit bureaus.

Not trying to justify the existence of credit bureaus but let's not kid ourselves. They aren't sending spies to your house or tapping your phone lines to get this info. You personally authorize a large amount of it.

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