Political Quotes

“Today, I am joined by Senator Van Hollen in reintroducing the Consumer Credit Control Act, which gives consumers greater control over when and how their consumer reports are shared by consumer reporting agencies. Our current consumer reporting system is backwards. Consumer reporting agencies collect extensive amounts of personal information on consumers, often without their knowledge, in order to compile consumer reports. These reports are then shared with financial institutions and others, typically without consent. Following Equifax's failure in 2017 to secure troves of valuable personally identifiable information it collected on over 145 million Americans, it was evident that this system had to change. Indeed, the National Consumer Law Center's Chi Chi Wu stated in her October 2017 testimony before the House Financial Services Committee that the Equifax breach ``means half of the US population and nearly three- quarters of the consumers with active credit reports are now at risk of identity theft due to one of the worst--if not the worst--breaches of consumer data in American history. These Americans are at risk of having false new credit accounts. phony tax returns, and even spurious medical bills incurred in their good names.'' To make matters worse. the risks of identity fraud may not dissipate over time. As Ed Mierzwinski. U.S. PIRG's federal Consumer Program Director. explains ``unlike credit card numbers.…”