@dooBdoo wrote:
No. Absolutely not. I think it's dangerously deceptive, self-serving (for Experian) advertising and causes more problems for those who use it. Remember, we are not the customers of credit reporting agencies -- we are their product, their merchandise.
There are many articles on the internet. Here are excerpts from one that I think does a good job of explaining what really happens to those who accept this "free" scan:
" ...The search box makes a stab at transparency by stating that inputting your email means you’re giving Experian permission to pitch its own products as well as “other products that may be of interest.”
It also says you’re agreeing to Experian’s terms of service.
But that hardly comes close to a full disclosure of what’s transpiring. I clicked on Experian’s terms of service and found a densely written, nearly 17,600-word document — a contract the length of a novella.
Not surprisingly, this is where you’ll find an arbitration clause preventing you from suing the company — an increasingly common aspect of consumer contracts nowadays.
That’s the least of your worries, though.
It turns out running a free dark-Web email scan opens you up to “advertisements or offers for available credit cards, loan options, financial products or services, or credit-related products or services and other offers to customers.”
It also exposes you to “the ability to track and collect certain consumer information specific to you,” including your credit score, loan and credit card payments, and interest rates.
The terms reveal that Experian “receives compensation for the marketing of credit opportunities or other products or services available through third parties,” which is exactly what it sounds like.
You’re giving permission for the company to sell you out.
And if you make it to the very bottom of the contract — no small feat, I assure you — you’ll find this little cow chip: Even if you cancel any Experian service, your acceptance of the arbitration clause “shall survive.”
For the rest of your natural life? That seems to be the presumption.
Claudia Kubowicz Malhotra, an associate professor of marketing at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, said two big problems with Experian’s pitch are that no one will read 17,600 words of fine print and that relatively few consumers have the slightest idea what the dark Web is... "
please see the entire article at:
http:// www . latimes . com/business/lazarus/la-fi-lazarus-experian-dark-web-20170922-story.html
(remove spaces to copy and paste the URL or search for "Credit agency Experian says it can protect you from the 'dark Web' — sort of" at LATimes dot com)
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