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Comment by vulcan01

3 years ago

You don't need to. Your employer can give this info to whoever they want, and many give this data to Equifax or one of the other credit agencies.

Also, you might give your bank employment details, and your bank will most likely send that info to a credit agency as well.

There's not much of an escape.

Opt out of the system as soon as you possibly can. No mortgage, no bank, no address, no traditional job.

  • No mortgage and no job are achievable.

    You kind of need a bank, if you go around with cash the police or other criminals can just seize it.

    You also may want an address to live somewhere, I'd rather live in a house than in a car.

    • Have a mailing address that is in the same city but not your residential address.

If I bundle my personal information together into an nft and then buy that nft, could I issue the credit agency with a DMCA takedown notice?

  • Aren't NFTs essentially just file hashes/signatures that can be associated with a public/private key pair on a blockchain? If so, the link between the NFT and the key pair might be solid (as in cryptographically secure) but the link between the NFT and its "underlying asset" (which might be copyrightable) seems flimsy.

    That being said, since both NFT ownership and our legal systems rely on consensus and majority opinion, it's not hard to imagine a corrupt society in which the opinion of judges is disregarded in favor of blockchain consensus.

    Edit: you might be joking but it's an interesting question nonetheless because it highlights how various systems compete for legitimacy :)

  • IANAL

    The NFT would be completely irrelevant here. Basically I assume you are claiming copyright over your salary and personal information. Unfortunately you can't trademark facts, so this approach isn't viable.

What exactly do employers and banks stand to gain from sharing this information? Is it an exchange of information for money?

  • For employers it offloads employment and salary verification. Instead of having to pay someone to answer verification calls all day they just upload the data to The Work Number and let them handle it.

  • Banks and organizations that are considering lending you credit (i.e. buying a house / car / getting a credit card) can know if you're getting in over your head with finances and might be higher risk to repay. They can set their interest rates and fees appropriately.

    Although all that said for any major loan the bank is going to ask you to provide detailed proof of all income, assets, etc. They likely use this service as a check to make sure you aren't trying to overstate your income.

  • From what I recall at my time there, banks use it as supplemental source of creditworthiness validation. The government also pays for the data to verify eligibility for welfare and other social services. Employers...I don't think were a major revenue source although I wouldn't be surprised if some used it to inform their salary thresholds.