Consumer complaint received 2023-07-21
Company: CBC Companies, Inc.
State: UT
Product: Credit reporting, credit repair services, or other personal consumer reports
Sub-product: Other personal consumer report
Issue: Problem with a company's investigation into an existing issue
Sub-issue: Was not notified of investigation status or results

Complaint:
There wasn't exactly the right categorization for this one. I'm working through all data brokers to try to understand what they have on me and if they have stuff to delete my information. It's clear most really dont want to help or care about the consumer. This particular one is AmRent. AmRent replied to me and Ill give a copy of the email contents below. They even have a process. XXXX XXXX XXXX  It's not feasible, safe, or practical to ONLY offer a way for me to get my info if I print off a form and physically mail my PII in the mail to them? It's clearly a play for them not to give me my info or make it hard to dispute. 

From : Privacy - AmRent XXXX Date : Wednesday, XX/XX/2023 at XXXXXXXX XXXX To : XXXX XXXX XXXX Subject : RE : Information Request As noted below, please refer to our Consumer Assistance page at XXXX : XXXX for additional information on our consumer assistance services and how you can request a copy of your AmRent criminal record report and a copy of your consumer report that we previously provided to one of our customers. As noted below, we may not have any such information on you. To protect the confidentiality and security of your personal information and that of others who may share your first and last name, we ask that you use our process, as disclosed on our website, to request this information. Please do not hesitate to reach out to AmRents Consumer Assistance Team at the telephone number disclosed at the link above if you have additional questions about how to request a copy of this information. 

We do not provide a portal on our website for consumers to submit documents to us. To protect the confidentiality and security of your personal information, we do not provide a mechanism on our website for you to view and validate the information in your consumer report that we previously provided to one of our customers. However, you may obtain a copy of your consumer report and dispute information in your report, as described at the link above. 

Thank you, AmRent Privacy Team From : XXXX XXXX XXXX Sent : Tuesday, XX/XX/2023 XXXXXXXX XXXX To : Privacy - AmRent XXXX Subject : Re : Information Request This message was originally addressed to XXXX STOP. THINK. ACT. This message originated from outside CBC. Please use caution before clicking on any links or opening any attachments. If you suspect this email is suspicious please select Report Phish above to send it to XXXX XXXX. 
Is there a way for me to digitally request and validate? Its not a great idea for me to put all that sensitive information in a postcard and physically ship it. Dont you have a secure submission portal? 

XXXX XXXX From : Privacy - AmRent XXXX Date : Tuesday, XX/XX/2023 at XXXX PM To : XXXX XXXX Subject : RE : Information Request We received your email below and a similar email from you on XX/XX/2023 requesting to access the personal information we maintain about you in our systems. We acknowledged receipt of both emails in an email sent to you on XX/XX/2023. We are responding to both of your information requests below. 

XXXX XXXX Services AmRent provides resident screening services to landlords and property management companies. AmRent maintains a database of criminal record information. Any information contained within these records is considered to be publicly available information. AmRent also resells credit and eviction information from other consumer reporting agencies. A reseller is a consumer reporting agency that ( 1 ) assembles and merges information contained in the database of another consumer reporting agency or multiple consumer reporting agencies concerning any consumer for the purposes of furnishing such information to any third party, to the extent of such activities, and ( 2 ) does not maintain a database of the assembled or merged information from which new consumer reports are produced. Additional information about AmRent is available at XXXX XXXX XXXX 

Criminal Records Database and Consumer Reports If you wish for us to review our criminal records database and consumer report records, please review the information available at XXXX : XXXX and https : XXXX to learn more about how to initiate such a request to our Consumer Assistance Department. As noted in our Privacy Notice at XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX notice, we require that you provide us with additional information to verify your identity in order to process your request for consumer report records. This process is in place to protect the confidentiality and security of your personal information and the personal information of others that may share your first and last name.

Please note that AmRent may not have information on a particular individual solely because that individual is or has been a renter or rental applicant. AmRent does not make the decision to approve or deny a rental application. If you believe that information from AmRent was used to approve or deny your rental application, you should contact your current or prospective landlord or property management company to find out more about the decision that was made. 

Correspondence and Complaints We may have certain personal information about you in other business records. This information may have been provided by you or collected by us in prior interactions with you, such as in any previous requests that you may have submitted to us or other correspondence with us by email or in writing and our response to those requests or correspondence, in any previous complaints that you may have submitted to the XXXX, CFPB, or others about us and our responses to those complaints, or in any prior telephone conversations you may have had with us, including with our Consumer Assistance Department. If you have had any such prior interactions with us, our records may include your name, telephone number, email address ( es ), call recordings ( if applicable ), and other information that you may have provided directly to us or in your complaints to third parties or that we collected from you in any of these interactions. We will maintain that information as required by legal and regulatory requirements. We will maintain the information you provided to us in your email below and in your XX/XX/2023 email to us subject to the same requirements. 

Business-to-Business and Employment Relationships If you are a resident of California and have applied for a job with AmRent or you were previously or are currently an employee of AmRent, please advise. If you are a resident of California and believe that you or your current or prior employers may have provided us with certain personal information about you in connection with those business relationships, please advise. To protect the confidentiality and security of your personal information and the personal information of others that may share your first and last name, we will need to obtain additional information from you in order to search our human resources and/or commercial records. 

Additional Privacy and Consumer Assistance Information To learn more about AmRents privacy practices, your privacy rights, and the privacy requests that can be submitted to AmRent, please visit the following : XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXXXXXX. As noted above, if you wish to request an AmRent criminal record report or a copy of the consumer report previously provided to an AmRent customer, please refer to our Consumer Assistance page at the link above for information on this process, including the applicable contact information. AmRent will, as described in the companys Privacy Notice and Consumer Assistance page at the links above, require you to provide certain identification information prior to disclosing consumer report information. If you wish to dispute any information in an AmRent criminal record report or in your consumer report, please refer to AmRents Privacy Notice and Consumer Assistance page for information on this process. If you wish to opt-out of prescreening, please refer to the instructions provided in AmRents Privacy Notice. 

Thank you, AmRent Privacy Team This e-mail communication ( including any attachments ) contains information from CBC Companies or its affiliates that is confidential and privileged. The information contained herein is intended only for the use of the addressee ( s ) named above. If you are not the intended recipient ( or the agent responsible to deliver it to the intended recipient ), you are hereby notified that any dissemination, distribution, use, or copying of this communication is strictly prohibited. If you have received this e-mail in error, please immediately reply to sender, delete the message, and destroy all copies of it. 

-- -- -Original Message -- -- - From : XXXX XXXX Sent : Thursday, XX/XX/2023 XXXX XXXX To : Privacy - AmRent XXXX Subject : Information Request This message was originally addressed to XXXX STOP. THINK. ACT. This message originated from outside CBC. Please use caution before clicking on any links or opening any attachments. If you suspect this email is suspicious please select Report Phish above to send it to Information Security.

To AmRent, Please assist with providing me with all the data that you have on me. This is an Information Request. Im looking to exercise my privacy rights to understand what data you have on me. 

My Name : XXXX XXXX Email Address ( es ) : XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX Note : I have more than just this as an email address. If you are using email as an identifier and I need to provide alternate emails you may find me under, then please let me know. 

There are different requirements for what information I need to provide, and it varies per company. Because of this, youll need to let me know if more information is needed to provide me with my Info Request. 

I look forward to your prompt response and will look to the CFPB for further guidance and complaints if I do not hear back. 

- XXXX XXXX

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation