Thursday, March 29, 2018

Georgia leads in privacy legislation

Credit reporting agencies collect data on you. Then they charge customers, (banks, or others considering loans), money to use that data. They also charge you to try to protect that data.

When one of them was breached, Equifax, it affected 143 Million Americans. I tried over 10 times to freeze my accounts waiting on hold for hours. In 2018 Congress decided to take no action. This, even though the breach may have been more serious that initially realized. Some even claim this treasure trove of data is a ticking time bomb waiting to happen again.

A spot of good news, the Georgia Senate voted 51-0 on Thursday to give final approval to a bill that would prevent credit reporting agencies from charging customers to lock their credit reports. A locked or frozen credit report can’t be changed.