Does Experian share personal data cross-country?

James28

Hi guys,

I was wondering, to what extent the credit reporting agencies, such as Experian, share personal information with their clients.

1. Sharing personal and contact details across countries? For example, if I had an Experian account in the US, and moved to the UK - can a collection agency from the US get my UK contact details? Presumanly, they could ID you by your full name and date of birth, to a reasonable accuracy. Do you think they are allowed to sell this to companies?

2. IP details? Say you have an account with Experian and log in to check your recent credit score; can they sell this information to collection agency later on?

Experian states in their website that they offer credit services to "help improve" collections by locating debtors and confirming and updating contact details. To what extent do you think they go with this?

Thanks,

bengalknights

There is probably a very good chance that they do if they have the abililty to carry out the search within the markets they operate in but im guessing there would be a limit to what they could share among themselves due to data protection laws in relevant countrys.

James28

Data protection laws is a big question here. There is a good chance financial and legal information (bankrupcies, etc) is protected by privacy protection laws, but I am not so sure about basic personal and contact information, especially if you enter it yourself by subscribing to Experian (they probably have some fineprint you are consenting to them collecting personal information).

James28

I wanted to follow up on this.

I guess it would be difficult to know for sure what they collect and how they use the data that they collect, unless you work for Experian. But still, has anyone heard cases that would imply they sell this type of data, e.g. moving to a different country and starting to get collections calls right after subscribing to Experian.