De toekomst van privacy in Europa?

Amerika loopt voorop, op vele fronten, en algemeen kan worden aangenomen dat Europa volgt.

Toch is het te hopen dat de privacy van burgers in Europa niet zo wordt geschonden als in het land van de onbegrensde mogelijkheden.

Slechts weinig mensen zijn op de hoogte van de privacy-rechten van een particulier binnen de United States.
Waarom? Omdat men nauwelijks rechten heeft.

Vergeleken met Amerika is Nederland een privacy walhalla.

Lees onderstaande om een beeld te krijgen wie in Amerika wat bijhoudt en wat er mee gedaan wordt.


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Most of the media coverage regarding free credit reports misses an important fact: Credit bureaus aren’t the only ones keeping dossiers on you.

Specialized firms maintain databases full of the details regarding other aspects of your life, including:

- Your employment history

- Auto and homeowners insurance claims you’ve filed

- Whether you've bounced any checks

- Your medical records

- Your housing rental history (including whether you've been evicted)

Just as you may be denied a loan based on whats in your credit-bureau reports, you also may be deprived of a job, insurance, bank accounts or an apartment because of information -- correct or not -- in these other databases.

Here are the categories of information that are covered by FACTA, and the companies you can contact for free reports:

- Medical information. If youve applied for life, health, disability or long-term care policies, information about your health may have been reported to the Medical Information Bureau. This membership association of 600 companies is designed to help insurers detect fraud and deter applicants from lying on applications.

- Tenant history. No one company dominates this field, but some of the larger screening agencies include Registry Safe-Rent and U.D. Registry.

- Auto and homeowners insurance claims. ChoicePoints CLUE reports can be ordered at ChoiceTrust.com, while ISOs A-PLUS reports can be ordered by calling (800) 709-8842 or by writing A-PLUS Consumer Inquiry Center, 545 Washington Blvd. 22nd Floor, Jersey City, NY 07310-1686.

- Check-writing history. ChexSystems is the largest player in this arena. It maintains a database of people who have mishandled; their bank accounts (typically by repeatedly bouncing checks). You can order a report online (ignore any reference to a "small fee") or call (800) 428-9623 or send snail-mail to ChexSystems, Attn: Consumer Relations, 7805 Hudson Road, Suite 100, Woodbury, MN 55125.

- Employment screeners. Companies that provide background checks to employers have to abide by other FACTA rules, but they typically dont have to provide free reports to consumers, said Les Rosen, co-chairman of the National Association of Professional Background Screeners. Thats because the typical background-checking firm doesnt maintain permanent; files on consumers and instead puts together a one-time report for employers. Only companies that maintain databases of information on consumers must provide free reports. However, employers must get your written permission before a third party can run a background check, and you're entitled to see the report if it's used to deny you a job or promotion.

Anatomy of a credit report
A credit report is basically divided into four sections: identifying information, credit history, public records and inquiries.

Identifying information is just that -- information to identify you. Look at it closely to make sure it's accurate. It's not unusual, Sweet says, for there to be two or three spellings of your name or more than one Social Security number. That's usually because someone reported the information that way. The variations will stay on your credit report; "If it's reported wrong, we leave it because it might mess up the link. Don't be concerned about variations."

Other information might include your current and previous addresses, your date of birth, telephone numbers, driver's license numbers, your employer and your spouse's name.

The next section is your credit history. Sometimes, the individual accounts are called trade lines.

Each account will include the name of the creditor and the account number, which may be scrambled for security purposes. You may have more than one account from a creditor. Many creditors have more than one kind of account, or if you move, they transfer your account to a new location and assign a new number. The entry will also include:

* When you opened the account
* The kind of credit (installment, such as a mortgage or car loan, or revolving, such as a department store credit card)
* Whether the account is in your name alone or with another person
* Total amount of the loan, high credit limit or highest balance on the card
* How much you still owe
* Fixed monthly payments or minimum monthly amount
* Status of the account (open, inactive, closed, paid, etc.)
* How well you've paid the account

On Experian's report, your payment history is written in plain English -- never pays late, typically pays 30 days late, etc. Other comments might include internal collection and charged off or default.

"Charged off means the creditor has given up, thrown in the towel," Ulzheimer says. "He's made efforts to collect and written it off."

Other reports use payment codes ranging from 1 to 9; an R1 or I1 on a report is an indication of a good payment history on a revolving or installment account.

The next section is the part you want to be absolutely blank. The public records section "is never a good story," Sweet says. "If you have a public record on there, you've had a problem."

It doesn't list arrests and criminal activities; just financial-related data, such as bankruptcies, judgments and tax liens. Those are the monsters that will trash your credit faster than anything else.

The final section is the inquiries. That's a list of everyone who asked to see your credit report.

"Any time anyone gets into the report, it'll post an inquiry," Ulzheimer says. "If you call the credit bureau and ask for a copy, it will be on there. It's a very detailed entry record. It's great for the consumer."

Inquiries are divided into two sections. "Hard" inquiries are ones you initiate by filling out a credit application or taking your child to the orthodontist. "Soft" inquiries are from companies that want to send out promotional information to a pre-qualified group or current creditors who are monitoring your account.

You may have heard that a large number of inquiries can have a negative impact on your credit score, but you're probably OK.

"The vast majority of inquiries are ignored by the FICO scoring models," Ulzheimer says. "They're not the steak in the steak dinner."

For instance, the model has a buffer period that ignores inquiries within 30 days of getting a mortgage or a car loan. It also counts two or more "hard" inquiries in the same 14-day period as just one inquiry.

"You could have 30 in two weeks and it only counts as one," Ulzheimer says.

If you find a mistake on your credit report -- an account that isn't yours or a disputed amount -- you'll need to fill out the form that comes with the report, or follow the instructions on the explanatory sheet.

The process takes time because the creditors have 30 days to respond to a charge of a discrepancy. As long as a charge is in dispute, that dispute will show up on your report. Long-time lenders say it's common for reports to have errors. Some estimate that as many as 80 percent of all credit reports have some kind of misinformation.
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[ Bericht 4% gewijzigd door halion op 09-11-2005 09:27:32 ]

quote:

Op woensdag 9 november 2005 09:38 schreef Burbo het volgende:
Samenvatting?

Steven Seagal sucks.