That is precisely what it's not. Your existence isn't a secret. Things like your address, phone number, and legal information are freely available from a variety of sources. When you do business with banks or other lending institutions, you are explicitly granting them the right to exchange your payment information with other institutions and CRAs. When you seek or attain employment, you are told if the company makes use of some service like The Work Number for previous employment and salary tracking.
> Pretending that a "secure" system can be devised which will protect that data is irresponsible, because it is impossible. The data will leak eventually.
This is sadly true.
> grotesquely harmful institutions like the CRAs
Without CRAs, how would companies judge your credit worthiness? Access to credit and loans would be much more difficult, and would be much more expensive, without them. Or some similar mechanism to share that sort of information.
Again, the harm doesn't come from the CRAs. A CRA doesn't grant an identity thief access to your accounts, or open credit in your name. That's the banks, CC companies, utilities, etc. who will open accounts with insufficient proof of identity.
It's not the data that's toxic, it's the misuse of it. Allowing accounts to be opened or accessed with easily searched or guessed information is where the real problem is.