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Fair Credit Reporting: 7.2.9 Use by Officials to Determine Child Support Payment Levels

Two separate provisions permit government agencies to obtain consumer reports for use in connection with determining ability to pay and the appropriate level of child support awards. The first allows releases to child support enforcement agencies, which may be state or local.409 The second applies to the single state agency that administers the federal child support enforcement state plan.410

Fair Credit Reporting: 7.2.10.1 Generally

Although the permissible purposes section of the FCRA states that consumer reports may be released under the listed circumstances “and no other,”418 the FCRA actually contains a smattering of provisions elsewhere in the Act that authorize various releases to and uses by government agencies. Even if a government use is impermissible, however, sovereign immunity may provide an obstacle to relief under the FCRA.419

Fair Credit Reporting: 7.2.10.2 Identifying Information Furnished to the Government

Even if a government agency does not have a permissible purpose described by the Act, a CRA may furnish certain “identifying information” short of a full consumer report to governmental agencies.420 This information is the consumer’s name, address, former addresses, places of employment, or former places of employment.421 A government agency without an otherwise permissible purpose cannot obtain information beyond that specified above.422

Fair Credit Reporting: 7.2.10.3 Investigation of FCRA Violations

The FCRA provides the FTC with investigational powers concerning FCRA violations, including the power to require the production of documents.426 This gives the FTC the power to subpoena consumer reports in connection with any investigation under the Fair Credit Reporting Act.427 Other federal agencies with enforcement authority under the FCRA should have the same power,428 as should state officials with authority under state credit reporting statut

Fair Credit Reporting: 7.2.10.4 Permissible Use by FBI for Counterintelligence Purposes

The FCRA grants the FBI access to three different types of consumer information from CRAs if the FBI430 certifies that the information is “sought for the conduct of an authorized investigation to protect against international terrorism or clandestine intelligence activities, provided that such an investigation of an United States person is not conducted solely upon the basis of activities protected by the first amendment to the Constitution of the United States.”431 The 2001 USA PATRIOT Act remo

Fair Credit Reporting: 7.3.1 Overview

Users often seek from consumer reporting agencies lists of consumers with certain relevant characteristics, or lists which specify the varying characteristics of individuals on the list. Many, but not all, of these lists are considered to be a series of consumer reports on each consumer on the list. If the list is considered to be series of consumer reports, the user must have a permissible purpose for every consumer on the list.

Fair Credit Reporting: 7.3.2.1 Generally

A list of consumers is considered to be a series of consumer reports on each individual named on the list if the list meets the general definition of “consumer report”: that is, the list bears on “a consumer’s credit worthiness, credit standing, credit capacity, character, general reputation, personal characteristics, or mode of living” and is collected, used, or expected to be used for the purpose of establishing the consumer’s eligibility for credit, insurance, employment, or another permissible purpose set forth in the FCRA.448

Fair Credit Reporting: 7.3.2.2 Target Marketing Lists

CRAs compile and sell many kinds of mailing lists to retailers to use to solicit business from consumers. These so-called target marketing lists compete with thousands of other mailing lists of consumers sold by every imaginable kind of business.

Fair Credit Reporting: 7.3.3.1.1 Introduction

The FCRA permits CRAs to furnish lists containing limited consumer information, short of a full consumer report, for purposes of making a “firm offer of credit or insurance.”461 The title of this section of the FCRA refers to “credit or insurance transaction that are not initiated by the consumer,”462 but in the popular vernacular, it is simply called prescreening.

Fair Credit Reporting: 7.3.3.1.2 Restrictions for younger consumers

The Credit CARD Act of 2009 added a provision restricting the CRAs from including younger consumers on prescreened consumer lists. CRAs may not include consumers under age 21 on prescreened lists if the consumer’s report includes a date of birth revealing their age, unless the consumer has consented to being included.469

Fair Credit Reporting: 7.3.3.2.1 How prescreening reports are compiled

Prescreening is the process whereby CRAs compile or edit lists of consumers who meet specific criteria, and then provide the lists to the user or third party (such as a mailing service) who uses the lists to solicit consumers with a firm offer for the users’ products or services, usually by mail.470

Fair Credit Reporting: 7.3.3.2.2 Only limited information may be supplied

A CRA may supply only limited information for prescreening purposes. The user can receive little more than the name and the address of the consumer.475 The offer may include an identifier, but it must not be unique to the consumer, such as a Social Security number, and is to be used solely for the purpose of verifying the identity of the consumer.

Fair Credit Reporting: 7.3.3.3.1 Introduction

A CRA may provide a prescreened list of consumers only if the user makes a so-called “firm offer” of credit or insurance to each consumer on the list, or if the consumer authorizes a CRA to include the consumer’s name and address on prescreening lists.477 A firm offer is necessary in the logic of the statute because the report can be used only in connection with a consumer transaction. Having a firm offer apparently is close enough.

Fair Credit Reporting: 7.3.3.4 Consumers Can Elect to Be Excluded from Prescreening Lists

Recognizing the intrusive nature of direct marketing campaigns,546 the FCRA gives consumers the right to remove their names from prescreening lists; requires CRAs to maintain a joint notification system for removing names from prescreening lists; and requires that both CRAs and users of prescreened lists notify consumers of their right to be removed and the procedures for doing so.547

Fair Credit Reporting: 7.4.1 Introduction

The FCRA does not itemize impermissible purposes. Those impermissible purposes discussed in the following sections constitute only a partial list of some of the more common wrongful uses which arise. The rule is that a user must have a permissible purpose for obtaining a report; all other uses are impermissible. A user can be liable for either using or obtaining a consumer report impermissibly.559

Fair Credit Reporting: 7.4.3 Use in Tax Collection Proceedings

Although one of the original concerns giving rise to the FCRA was the free availability of confidential information to the IRS,563 CRAs have been required since 1976 to provide consumer reports in response to a summons issued by the IRS (but not other tax collection agencies).564 The IRS must first provide a designated IRS certificate that the consumer has not filed a timely motion to quash the summons.

Fair Credit Reporting: 7.4.4 Use in Civil or Criminal Litigation

Generally, a party involved or potentially involved in litigation does not have a permissible purpose to receive a consumer report,567 unless the subject matter of the litigation itself provides the permissible purpose (such as a suit on a credit account, actions to collect on a judgment, or a business transaction between the two parties).568 For example, there is no permissible purpose to obtain a consumer report in tort litigation569 or a divorce

Fair Credit Reporting: 7.4.6.1 General Rule

The FCRA generally permits release of a consumer report in connection with uses involving that consumer.598 Consequently, with the exceptions discussed below, there is no permissible purpose to obtain a consumer report on one individual to assist the user in making a determination on a different individual.