You're entirely right on the first two points. But you do implicitly opt in by being a consumer of credit. I recognize that's a bit mealy-mouthed, since it's ra

You're entirely right on the first two points. But you do implicitly opt in by being a consumer of credit. I recognize that's a bit mealy-mouthed, since it's rather hard to exist in modern America without being on Equifax's radar, but nevertheless there is at least some illusory optionality. I completely agree with your final point about a need for greater transparency. But this is the situation we are in. I think the much more interesting discussion is about how those economic holes are filled, and it's why I posed that question in my note above. Of all the corners of the internet where you might expect such a solution to be proposed, HN is surely the best. What does post-bureau creditworthiness attestation look like? Presumably it's decentralized, to minimize aggregate harm to people in the event of a hack. Presumably it's de facto (and de jure) verifiable and correctable by each individual. It must also have some sort of graduated 'need to know' disclosure mechanism, with crude aggregate scores available to low-ranked creditors (cellphone companies, for example), and much more detailed information available to senior stuff like mortgage lenders. And why wouldn't it also have a facility, which didn't disclose creditworthiness data, for authenticating users to various services? But then why not go one step further. Why have this stuff in one place per consumer at all? Why not have lenders jus reach out over an API to every other lender to ask in effect "How good a debtor has scrumper, with SSN 01-234-5678, been for you? How long have you done business with her?" and get various answers back, all of which can be factored into some model which conforms minimally to a regulator-provided specification? The size or risk of the loan dictates the depth of that pan-industry query. Companies don't hold any more than they already hold, and there's no nexus for that data at all. And all the lender is allowed to keep is the model result, some sort of FICO equivalent, for a particular applicant.