Consumer complaint received 2022-09-18
Company: EQUIFAX, INC.
State: NY
Product: Credit reporting, credit repair services, or other personal consumer reports
Sub-product: Credit reporting
Issue: Improper use of your report
Sub-issue: Reporting company used your report improperly

Complaint:
I am demanding that XXXX remove the student loan from my consumer report immediately. According to these loans being obtained 10 to 20 years ago, I was uninformed and coerced, as per 15 usc 6802, no one sat down with me and made things clear and conspicuous about the private policy and that I had the right to opt out to sharing my non-public personal information with non-affiliated third parties. Right there is a breach in the consumer credit transaction. This make this whole transaction null and void. By law that was suppose to be disclose to me and it wasn't. When I began studying consumer laws in XXXX oXXXX XXXX I notice that XXXXdepartment of education been in violation for reporting to the credit bureaus my non public personal information, and according to the FTC this is what they define as non-public personal information : NPI is : any information an individual gives you to get a financial product or service ( for example, name, address, income, Social Security number, or other information on an application ) ; any information you get about an individual from a transaction involving your financial product ( s ) or service ( s ) ( for example, the fact that an individual is your consumer or customer, account numbers, payment history, loan or deposit balances, and credit or debit card purchases ) ; or any information you get about an individual in connection with providing a financial product or service ( for example, information from court records or from a consumer report ). NPI does not include information that you have a reasonable basis to believe is lawfully made " publicly available. '' In other words, information is not NPI when you have taken steps to determine : that the information is generally made lawfully available to the public ; and that the individual can direct that it not be made public and has not done so. Consumer credit transaction by law shall be private, and I have the right to privacy as per 15 usc 1681 ( a ) ( 4 ) I demanded an election form from XXXX that should have been given to me the first day I established a relationship with them while obtaining these loans and every year after that as long as I am a customer. I opted out on the form demanding that they stop sharing, reporting my information to non-affiliated third parties that offers educational and financial services. The consumer reporting agencies had no affiliation to XXXX. when you look at XXXX website you see all their affiliated companies but not the credit bureaus. The credit bureaus are also considered to be a company that offers financial services and products according to ftc and the bank holding company act. They engage in activities of financial nature for profit. According to 12 CFR 225.28 ( a ) ( b ) ( 5 ) the credit bureaus are so closely related to banks because of the financial activities they engage in. credit bureaus are known to be a financial institution and I demanding that they remove these students loans off my consumer file. my next step is arbitration. I have the right to privacy and I have opted out for my information with XXXX not to be reported or shared with the credit bureaus or anyone else. And again XXXX violated my rights for not letting me know about the privacy act and sharing my information that's fraud and breach the whole transaction. null and voided

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation