Tom Blumer Gets It Right

I blogged about two weeks ago on the unbelievable claim from Equifax CEO Thomas Chapman that free credit reports are somehow "un-American".

Tom Blumer of BizzyBlog has done me one better. As he pointed out in the comments section here the other day, he's calling for nation-wide credit freeze legislation (like they have in California) in this excellent blog post.

Tom's as disgusted as I am at the notion that our data is Thomas Chapman's to sell back to us. Not only does Equifax think free credit reports are un-American, Chapman suggests that free credit reports don't protect consumers. My response is, who cares? Whether a free credit report helps me prevent identity theft (I'd argue it helps) or not, I'm entitled to the information, because it's mine.

Chapman thinks credit monitoring services are the solution to identity theft. Tom Blumer thinks a national credit freeze is needed. Of the two, Blumer is right. What BizzyBlog's calling for, though, is for the "freeze" status to be the default. I'm inclined to agree.

I haven't blogged about it a lot, but I was a victim of Identity Theft (I was even interviewed by Time Magazine about it), and it resulted from a phony landlord gaining access to my credit report. The credit freeze Tom Blumer is advocating would have protected me.

Bottom line is, Chapman seriously thinks that it should be our responsibility to police the data his company regularly fails to secure, and we should pay him to allow us to protect ourselves. I can't even get my head around that concept. I might have been sympathetic to the idea that consumers have a responsibility to monitor their own credit, but not if they are going to be charged for the tools to do it. And if I'm going to be responsible for protecting my own data, then I vote for Blumer's national credit freeze idea over subscription-based credit monitoring services.

(Off topic note: BizzyBlog is really smoking these days. Check it out. I try to avoid getting off of the credit topic here, and I generally avoid politics, but Tom's take on Nadagate and the New York Times is dead on the money.)

Comments

[Topher]

That would so totally rock. Like, totally.

[Tom Blumer]

Thanks for the nice post.

It looks like you don't do trackbacks--correct me if I'm wrong.

I gave you an update link back.

Thanks,
Tom Blumer
BizzyBlog

[jeff Michael]

Hey Tom, I have to confess I don't know how to do trackbacks. I've ready what the typepad user's guide has to say about them, but they make no sense to me. Maybe Topher can help me figure out how to do them.

Jeff