FTC takes heat for giving credit bureaus a special exception that allowed them to make lists of people who just filled out a loan application and sell them as leads to subprime lenders. [USA Today via U.S. PIRG Consumer Blog]
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From the second article:
Q: The bureaus sold credit data to brokers so they could pitch subprime mortgages. In retrospect, should you have done more than just issuing a consumer alert to regulate mortgage trigger lists?
[Federal Trade Commission Chairman Deborah Platt Majoras]: Consumer alerts are not a tacit approval of an activity. We want consumers to understand what it (a credit trigger) is and what it means. We’re saying, “There’s something going on here.” That doesn’t mean were not doing something else.
Gee, I wonder what the “something else” is…