back to article Brit competition bods to probe Experian and ClearScore merger

Experian's bid to slurp up fellow credit-check biz ClearScore is to be assessed by the UK's competition watchdog. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) revealed its intention to launch an in-depth merger investigation today, saying Experian had failed to address concerns identified in an initial probe. Experian …

  1. jms222

    Parasites

    Close them both down and re-purpose employees into something genuinely useful like picking veg. Or sanitising telephones.

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    How about the other investigations that should be taking place such as why, even post GDPR, all your data in complete detail has to be given to a third party before you are allowed to do any of the basic functions involved with a normal life?

    Why that data is then routinely sold on to other parties?

    Why there is no explicit consent option that doesn't affect you ability to utilize the services of a company employing these credit reference agencies?

    Why the fact that there was a major breach at Experian with them refusing to inform the UK ICO for many months, refusing to provide any factual details of the breach and them trying to brush most of it away with no ramifications?

    Why the ICO seemed completely powerless to provide any comeback, significant financial penalty, anything other than a few words of advice to the company for this breach?

    Maybe, as it is my data, I should be the one who get to choose which licensed credit reference agency can keep my details and the service must use that company when I apply for services without prejudicing my application. I would go with one that doesn't need to know everything in the world about me and then sell it off to others.

    1. This post has been deleted by its author

  3. Andy The Hat Silver badge

    Is GDPR valid here?

    If company A buys Company B does the customer database of B become the property A and subject to legitimate use *without* having to confirm with all the parties in the database? I thought there was a rule about this ...? If you do indeed have to confirm with customers, how do you do that without using the database?

  4. DCFusor

    What's not to like?

    Like the AC above says...

    Here we have organizations that you can't choose to opt out of - even if you _don't_ use the credit system.

    They collect all manner of data on you - stuff that in the US would have required a warrant, and freely sell it on to banks, and um, the government as a way to avoid them needing a warrant to snoop on you.

    OK, I can see that a bank would like to know some things about you before lending you money (that you probably shouldn't borrow anyway...but that's my philosophy). Even then, it's not like you get a "risk free interest rate", do you. I'm not sure what a better solution would be - it's clear something is needed, but the current setup is nasty.

    When they leak - as we know they do - that's all the info you need for identity theft, isn't it.

    Yet penalties for leaking are down in the noise, because the customers for that data *really* want it available to them, and damn the consequences to you.

    I recently found out how lame the government in the US is - I qualify for social security, and as part of a reduced paperwork law, the government has online services related to managing that. But!

    You can't get an account if you are not in the credit check company's databases!

    Having not used any credit for over 7 years, I became a "ghost". When I tried to open a MySSA account, it was denied due to this. I then called them on the phone, and after the usual half-day wait, was told this by them - no credit rating, no account, all things must be done by mail with them in that case. This is a major limit when you're dealing with say, medical billing that demands something from the SS admin in less than 10 days or you're going to be billed for a few times more than insurance companies actually pay.

    So, upshot is the government has abrogated all responsibility for even being able to prove you are you, while using these same services to snoop on whoever they want without getting a warrant!

    I stand amazed. It's all so intertwined you can't excise the cancer without killing the patient nowadays. Total dependency...the situation is nuts.

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    'It's all so intertwined'

    Thank dumb politicians whose privacy hasn't been hit yet. Singapore is proof of WHY we should back-peddle. Even if it takes decades, we should PAUSE until such a time that we know how to properly secure data and handle privacy and other ethical aspects. This rush to assumptions / cost savings will burn all our houses down, yet advanced economies can't stop:

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-44900507

    ~~~~~~

    "Beyond this, it trotted out the cliché that young people don't care about their personal information – perhaps having missed the furore over the Facebook data harvesting scandal that wiped millions off its stock – and the reductive argument that there's so much surveillance going on anyway, more doesn't matter.

    "All younger citizens who use mobile phones and social media are comfortable sharing copious amounts of information with commercial organisations and if they live in the UK having their every step watched by CCTV cameras," the report said.

    https://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/07/31/think_tank_moots_national_id_scheme_postbrexit/

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