Consumer Credit Woes: You’re Still Exposed!
Despite new laws, increased media coverage and consumer awareness, identity theft appears to be more a of threat than ever. More stringent FTC regulations and higher penalties still fail to stem the increasing exposure consumers experience with every new security breach.
The recent $10 million ChoicePoint settlement with the FTC for 160,000 individual’s personal data being sold to identity theives is the highest fine in FTC history. But, will it solve the problem? Granted, the risk of millions in fines may make personal data handlers more careful about their practices when selling our information, but does it help when the breach is a result of compromised computers, lost tapes or failure to shread paper records marked for disposal?
In keeping with the old saying, the squeaky wheel gets the grease, the sale of our personal data to undesired sources or its flow into unscrupulous hands will not stop until consumers demand it.
What will it take? For starters, consumers’ willingness to forego things like instant credit, shortcuts for establishing and maintaining accounts of all kinds, vigilance in updating passwords and pins on a regular basis, and the list goes on. While the majority of the burden should fall on those who traffick in selling our data to the highest bidder (usually to provide us with so-called “opportunities” to have credit with yet another company or to fill our mailboxes with even more offers for products and services we don’t need or want), consumer’s themselves will still have to share in the responsibility for stemming the flow.
The question is: How much longer can you afford to wait before demanding change?