said by bistro777 :

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You’d think the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act would protect you, right? Nope! When you “sign your life away” to Comcast, you’ve probably also given them the right to sell/market your personal information to “affiliates” – which, in the credit/marketing industry, has by definition historically included nearly anybody willing to pony-up to buy your personal info. (CitiGroup, for example has over 1,5000 affiliates.)

It gets worse. The law does not allow Credit Reporting Agencies like Equifax, Experian and TransUnion to sell information from credit reports for the purpose of direct marketing. But a loophole in the FCRA enables them to sell "directory information" from credit reports - "credit headers" - your name, address, telephone number, date of birth and Social Security number. The FCRA’s opt-out provision that applies to pre-approved offers of credit does not apply to credit headers. You are not able to opt-out of the sale of your credit header information by the CRAs. And Comcast, I believe, do the same with your info and its “affiliates.”

Here’s a recent letter from the Electronic Privacy Information Center to the Senate Banking Committee regarding this issue. One point it raises is “Researchers at Michigan State University recently studied over 1000 identity theft cases and found that victims in fifty percent of the cases specifically reported that the theft was committed by an employee of a company compiling personal information on individuals.” Makes ya want everyone to have your personal data, huh?

I can see it now - -
Lender: Your mortgage application is denied.
Comcast Customer: Huh? Why’s that?
Lender: It seems that you’ve had 175,000 credit checks run against you in the last 6 months?
Comcast Customer: But I haven’t applied for any new cards or loans!
Lender: Well your credit report shows you have 187 new car loans and 324 Visa cards running an average balance of $185,000 per month.
Comcast Customer: WHAT?!?
Lender: Too bad, pal, you’re SOL. But how’s your digital signal coming-in these days?

"Stand up wherever you are, go to the nearest window and yell as loud as you can, 'I'm mad as hell, and I'm not going to take it anymore.” - - Peter Finch in "Network"

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said by bistro777 :

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From my original post - - - "But a loophole in the FCRA enables them to sell "directory information" from credit reports - "credit headers" - your name, address, telephone number, date of birth and Social Security number. The FCRA’s opt-out provision that applies to pre-approved offers of credit does not apply to credit headers. You are not able to opt-out of the sale of your credit header information by the CRAs." - - - And Comcast can do the same with that personal information about you.

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