Yahoo Finance 'Is my personal data safe following Equifax hack?'
In October last year I received a letter from Equifax, the credit reference agency, informing me that my personal data had been hacked.
It offered a free trial of various security products. At first I thought this was a scam but after checking the company out, I realised that it was genuine.
So I wrote to the person whose name was on the letter asking for details of what Equifax held on my file, what authority it had for holding it, and who had asked for access to it in recent times.
I also wanted to know why it felt that I needed its security products.
Paul Rouse, East Yorks
After its parent company was hacked and customers’ data compromised, Equifax offered a two-year subscription for Equifax Protect, a service that monitors personal data.
This alerts the subscriber by email or text to potential signs of fraudulent activity and provides credit report information.
To avail yourself of this, and indeed to find out what was actually contained in your credit file, you needed to provide Equifax with yet more information. You describe the reply to your query as "dismissive" and "arrogant".
An anonymous letter informed you that the complaint that you made had been investigated and not upheld. You were sent a form to fill in with more of your personal information before it would supply details of the data that Equifax held about you.
You wrote to The Information Commissioner’s Office, but it simply said it was "unable to look into complaints about Equifax’s customer service".
Equifax explained that the information it collected "makes it possible for people to access credit quickly and fairly". The agency added that it allowed them to "purchase goods, to buy insurance, to take out a loan or even have access to utilities".
It also said it helped "large businesses verify a person’s identity, age and address to help prevent fraud and money laundering".
You ask what business it is of such people when you pay for things up front and do not want to use such services? Data should not be stored without a really good reason. You therefore remain uneasy about the power these agencies have and how those who somehow do not comply with their requirements are excluded in various ways from financial services.
Equifax says Companies House information is in the public domain anyway. Other information is needed as a safeguard to verify your identity by it should you want to access its services. You don’t. It says a central hub is required for a wide range of lenders to find out the ability of someone to repay them money.
Also, for example, some landlords even approach credit reference agencies for tenant verification. Clearly, though, you do not feel this information, given the past, would be in safe hands. Although Equifax does not apparently understand why you do not want to give it any more information, I certainly do.
