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CREDITWRENCH-TheTruth

This blog is dedicated to illustrating the depths of depravity to debt collectors and their cronies who infest various message boards spewing their spam, insults and filth can and do sink. They will stop at nothing to berate others while trying to elevate their own perceived worth.

Sunday, January 23, 2005

Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act

What You Can Do to Protect Your Privacy



1. Be sure to opt-out of information sharing from all of your financial, brokerage, and insurance companies. Privacy Rights Now, a website operated by Ralph Nader and Remar Sutton, has detailed opt-out information, including sample letters to send to financial institutions.
2. Wherever possible, minimize the amount of personal data given to commercial or governmental entities. Do not release contact information where it is unnecessary. Do not give out your Social Security Number unless it is related for tax purposes, such as employment or opening a bank account.
3. Don't give out personal information on the phone, mail or through the Internet unless you have initiated the contact or know whom you are dealing with. Pretexters may pose as representatives of survey firms, banks, Internet service providers and even government agencies to get you to reveal your SSN, mother's maiden name, financial account numbers and other identifying information. Legitimate organizations with which you do business have the information they need and will not ask you for it.
4. Pay attention to your statement cycles and follow up with your financial institutions if your statements do not arrive on time.
5. Review your statements carefully and promptly and report any discrepancies to your institution immediately.
6. Keep items with your personal information in a safe place. Tear or shred your charge receipts, copies of credit application, insurance forms, bank checks and other financial statements.
7. Be mindful about where you leave personal information in your home, especially if you have roommates or are having work done in your home by others.
8. Add passwords to your credit card, bank and phone accounts.
9. Your credit report contains information on where you work and live, the credit accounts that have been opened in your name, how you pay your bills and whether you've been sued, arrested or have filed for bankruptcy. Checking your report periodically can help you catch mistakes and fraud before they wreak havoc on your personal finances.
10. Opt-out from the Credit Reporting Agencies (CRAs) pre-approved credit card offers. By calling 1-888-5OPTOUT (1-888-567-8688), you can stop most pre-approved credit card offers. However, you cannot opt-out from the sale of credit headers. Be sure to specify that you wish to be permanently removed from pre-approved credit card offers, otherwise you will be placed back on the recipient list in two years. To permanently opt-out, you will have to fill out a form that the CRA will mail to you.
11. Be aware of the price of marketing schemes, while they may convince you that conceding control of your personal data will bring offers of better products and services, for most people this does not translate into opportunity, but into more unwanted telemarketing calls, more junk mail, and more opportunities for sensitive information to make its way into the databases of online data brokers available to identity thieves, charities, investments and other schemes.

In the brayings of uncle normie he says that GLBA does not define such agencies as CHEXSYSTEMS as being under GLBA but the courts have ruled against him.