> credit bureaus, there isn't really a way to opt out of signing their T&Cs without also opting out of modern society. If anyone's curious, here's more detail.

> credit bureaus, there isn't really a way to opt out of signing their T&Cs without also opting out of modern society. If anyone's curious, here's more detail. Opting out of credit bureaus is actually not possible. One can opt out of pre-screened offers of credit (https://optoutprescreen.com/ https://optoutprescreen.com/, https://simpleoptout.com/#lexis-nexis https://simpleoptout.com/#lexis-nexis), can lock your credit to prevent credit checks, and can opt out of some of data sharing, but financial institutions have safe harbor to release information to credit reporting agencies under the Fair Credit Reporting Act (https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/15/1681 https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/15/1681). The Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act requires financial institutions to let customers opt out of disclosing "nonpublic personal information to a nonaffiliated third party" (https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/16/313.7 https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/16/313.7). That constraint would be fairly reasonable, except that there's giant additional carve-outs (https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/16/313.14 https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/16/313.14, https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/16/313.15 https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/16/313.15). The biggest things that no one can opt out of are "(3) To provide information to insurance rate advisory organizations, guaranty funds or agencies, agencies that are rating you, persons that are assessing your compliance with industry standards, and your attorneys, accountants, and auditors;" and "(i) To a consumer reporting agency in accordance with the Fair Credit Reporting Act (15 U.S.C. 1681et seq.)." This is true even if one has never requested, been extended, or will ever request credit. As you noted, the only way to "opt out" would be to only receive or pay cash for everything and forgo modern society. The root cause is FCRA's overly broad scope. Instead of allowing credit applicants/recipients and credit providers to establish an equilibrium that works for both parties ("Want credit? Okay, opt in to credit reporting from your other vendors and then we'll review your application"), FCRA forcibly opts everyone in. You've probably seen this form before: https://www.ftc.gov/system/files/documents/rules/privacy-consumer-financial-information-financial-privacy-rule/privacymodelform_optout.pdf https://www.ftc.gov/system/files/documents/rules/privacy-con.... Those FCRA carve-outs are why "Can you limit this sharing?" always says "No" for the top few rows.