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PRIVACY POLICY

FOR THE REGISTRATION WEB SITE OF

THE FTC CREDIT REPORT ACCURACY STUDY 

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC), an independent agency of the United States

Government, is conducting a study on the accuracy of credit bureau information. This Web site is

being used to register participants for the study. 

This Web site is operated under contract by the University of Missouri, which is serving as

the lead member of the FTC’s research team. (George Washington University and Fair Isaac

Corporation (FICO) are also assisting the FTC in the research for this study.) 

Please read the privacy policy below to learn what information is being collected by this

Web site. The FTC and its research team take your privacy seriously, and we want you to know

why this information is being collected, and how it will be used and protected. 

1. What information does this Web site collect?

Information collected automatically. When you visit this Web site, it collects some

information automatically, including the time and date of your visit, the Internet Protocol (IP)

address associated with your visit, etc. (“log” information). This log information is anonymous

and does not identify you personally. The information is generally used for management of the

Web site, for general Web statistical purposes, and to maintain Web site security, such as

monitoring Web site traffic to detect unauthorized attempts to upload or change information or

cause other damage. 

In addition, this Web site uses “cookies” technology. A cookie is a small hidden text file

that a Web site creates and places on your computer. A cookie can collect (compile) and maintain

information about your Web site activity, including personal information you submit to the Web

site or pages your have viewed while you are visiting that Web site (“session”or “non-persistent”

cookie), or even after you leave the Web site and return to it later (“persistent” cookie). Web

browsers allow you to control cookies by not accepting them or by deleting them from your

computer, if you have previously accepted them. 

Only session (non-persistent) cookies are used on this Web site for the FTC study. You

must accept these cookies for the Web site to work properly with some Web browsers. If your

browser requires cookies and you do not accept them, the Web site will not allow you to register

for this study. When you close your Web browser, your computer automatically deletes the

cookies you accepted, and any information collected by those cookies is no longer stored. 

You may read the University of Missouri’s privacy policy to learn more about the purpose,

use, and handling of information that is automatically collected by this registration Web site, and

by other Web sites hosted by the University.
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Information submitted, or generated and maintained, during the registration process. If

you are visiting the Web site to register and participate in the study, this Web site will ask you to

provide: name (first, last); address (street, city, state, ZIP); phone number and best time to call;

e-mail address; a self-assigned password, and a “study code” that indicates how you learned about

the study (see below). The Web site will also create, record, and provide you a unique login ID

that you will need to use (with your self-assigned password) at another Web site to continue your

participation in the study (see below). The site will also generate you a voucher number that you

will also need to have and use when you visit the other Web site (see below).

Information submitted to the FICO Web site for this study: After you register for the

FTC’s study at this Web site, you will be referred to the credit report Web site maintained by FICO

(www.myFICO.com) to continue your participation in the study, as explained below. To

understand what information the FICO Web site asks you to provide, and how that Web site

handles that information, please visit the privacy policy for that site.

2. Why is this information being collected?

The purpose of the information collected through this Web site is to register individuals

participating in the FTC’s study, which the FTC is required to conduct under the Fair and Accurate

Credit Transactions Act of 2003 (FACT Act or FACTA). (As noted above, please visit the

University of Missouri’s privacy policy to understand the purpose for “log” information that is

automatically collected when you visit a Web site that it hosts.) The Web site collects your name,

address, e-mail address, phone number and best time to call, in order for the FTC’s research team

to contact and interview you for the study. The Web site will also ask you to enter a “study code”

that will tell our research team how you learned about our study. (This study code will be

provided to you when you are solicited for the study by the FTC or other companies or entities

who may be working with the FTC to identify potentially qualified participants.) An added

purpose of this code is to prevent others who have not been identified for participation from

unnecessarily using or interfering with the registration site. 

As noted above, the Web site assigns and keeps track of a unique login ID assigned to you,

and a password you will choose. The purpose of that information is for the FTC’s research team to

get a copy of your credit reports and scores from the FICO web site, once you have established

your own account at that site, using the same login ID and password information, as explained

below. 

3. How will the information be used?

The contact information collected by this Web site will be used by the FTC’s research team

to contact you for interviews to discuss your credit report and scores. If you identify significant

errors during these interviews, the FTC’s research team will ask you to dispute the errors with a

credit bureau, and let the research team know. The contact information will allow the team to

follow up with you if they do not hear from you, or have additional questions. Your login ID and

password, which are not part of this contact information, are used by the research team solely to

obtain copies of your credit reports and scores from the FICO Web site. The registration Web site

for the FTC’s study will not automatically transfer your login ID or password information to the
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FICO Web site. Rather, you will be instructed during the registration process to use the same login

ID and password when you visit the FICO Web site. That site requires every user (whether or not

they are participating in any study) to enter a self-selected ID and password for purposes of

establishing a personal myFICO.com account, before downloading credit reports and scores from

that site. (You will not be charged for your download, since you will also receive a voucher

number during the study’s registration process that you can enter at the FICO Web site for a

free download.) Once you establish your myFICO account, using your assigned login ID and

password (and the voucher number for a free download) from this Web site, the FTC’s research

team will then be able to visit the FICO Web site and use your same login ID and password to

access your account at that site, and download a copy of your credit report and scores for purposes

of the study. The study code collected by the registration Web site can be used by researchers to

determine how you were referred for participation in the study (e.g., by a bank). 

4. With whom will the information be shared?

The information collected by this registration Web site will be available to the FTC’s

research team for the purposes described earlier. The FTC will not receive your contact

information from the research team, so it will not be part of any FTC (government) records and

will not be part of the FTC’s report to Congress. FICO also will not have access to any of the

contact information collected from you through this Web site. The only way FICO will obtain

your login ID, password and voucher number created during the registration process is when you

voluntarily choose to use that information on FICO’s Web site in creating an account at that site,

when it asks you to enter a self-selected login ID, password and a voucher number before you can

download your free credit report and scores from that site, as described earlier. The FTC’s

research team works under contract to the FTC, and their contract does not allow the team to share

your information with anyone else outside the FTC for purposes unrelated to the study. If the FTC

or the research team receives a subpoena or other legal process, however, the FTC and/or its

research team may be legally required to make the information available in response to that

subpoena or other legal process.

5. Will there be notice and any opportunity to consent to the kind of information this

Web site collects or with whom it will be shared?

Yes. When you register for the FTC’s study through this Web site, this privacy policy and

other related notices will remind you what information is being collected, and with whom it will be

shared. As already explained, the information must be collected, used and shared as described

above in order for the FTC to accomplish this study while protecting your privacy as much as

possible. If you decide to register for this study, you are agreeing (consenting) to the collection

and use of your information for the purposes we have explained. If you do not want to submit the

information requested by this Web site, then you are not required to do so, but you will not be

registered to participate in the study. Your participation is completely voluntary, and there is no

effect on your credit reports or scores if you do not participate.

6. How will your information be secured?
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The information is secured by the host for this Web site (University of Missouri). You

may read their privacy policy to learn more. In particular, information submitted through this Web

site is protected by secure encryption technology designed to prevent your information from being

intercepted when your computer sends your information over the Internet to this Web site. Access

to any of your information stored in electronic databases is protected by passwords. Information

will be deleted when no longer needed for the study, and any paper copies shredded. Members of

the research team receive appropriate training and instructions, and must sign confidentiality

agreements. The study has also been designed to protect your privacy by separating the

registration process from the credit report downloading process that occurs at FICO’s Web site. 

This means that you are registered only with the FTC’s research team for the FTC’s study, and

contact information obtained from you during that process is not shared with the FTC or FICO, as

explained above. 

7. What are your rights under the Privacy Act of 1974 concerning this information?

The Privacy Act of 1974 protects information about individuals maintained in U.S.

Government systems of records that are retrieved by the name of an individual or other personal

identifier (e.g., Social Security number). As explained earlier, the FTC does not intend to make

any of the information collected by this Web site a part of any FTC agency records covered by the

Privacy Act. The FTC’s research team will maintain and use this information under contract for

purposes of the study. If the information is treated as part of the agency’s records, it would be

protected as part of the FTC’s legal records system, and you would have a right to make a formal,

written request under that Act to ask the FTC for the opportunity to review your records for

accuracy or any other reason. If you believe your registration information is incorrect or out-ofdate during the course of this study, you do not need to make a formal written request under the

Privacy Act. You may simply communicate the new information to the FTC’s research team at

busresc2@umsl.edu. 

Thank you for reviewing this privacy policy. If you have any questions about it, or about

the FTC’s study, please contact the FTC study coordinator, Peter Vander Nat, Ph.D., FTC Bureau

of Economics, at pvandernat@ftc.gov.