Guest guest Posted July 26, 2001 Report Share Posted July 26, 2001 Dear Guys, I apologize for any Dev-T, it was just brought to my attention that this e-mail I passed on was not TOTALLY accurate. This is from Urban Legends and Folklore The full article is at: http://urbanlegends.about.com/library/blcredit.htm?iam=dpile & terms=%2BOPT+%2BOUT+%2Brelease Comments: Not so fast! You may indeed want to dial that number, but first be aware that this little email tells a great big lie, namely that credit bureaus have all of a sudden been granted the right to share your personal information with any outside party they choose. Not so. They have always been able to do that. What is new since the Financial Services Modernization Act went into effect on July 1, 2001 is that U.S. consumers now have the explicit right to opt out of such information sharing by financial institutions with "unaffiliated firms" such as telemarketing companies. I.e., as of July 1, your privacy rights have ever-so-slightly increased, not decreased. The phone number given in the email is a valid one and has actually been available to consumers for several years. You can safely dial it to make an opt-out request based on your social security number (which will be requested) — but note that such a phone request only applies to the four major U.S. credit bureaus. If you also want to stop your bank, credit card companies, insurance companies, et al from releasing such information, you must contact each one individually. (Alternatively, you can contact the Direct Marketing Association to remove your name at the source.) Much love, DocIan "Doc" Shillington N.D.505-772-5889Dr.IanShillington Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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