A US judge has ruled that credit reporting agencies must comply
with regulations set up under an Act of 1999 that controls the
reuse of personal consumer data. Trans Union, a credit information
service, sued the Federal Trade Commission on the basis that its
rules breached their constitutional rights of free speech.
According to the Gramm Leach Bliley Act of 1999, financial
institutions must follow certain rules created by the Federal Trade
Commission on protecting the privacy of personal data. The rules
say that credit reporting agencies cannot resell and reuse credit
information obtained from financial institutions unless the
individuals are informed that their data has been passed to such
agencies and have been given an opportunity to object.
The First Amendment challenge to these rules failed and the
court found that they were lawful under the 1999 Act.
