If you think how much money you make is private, think again. NBC News reports that Equifax is selling your salary records and other personal information to debt collectors and financial service companies nationwide.
Not only is Equifax selling your information, they are paying employers to give it to them.
NBC's Bob Sullivan reveals that the Equifax credit reporting agency has a private database called "The Work Number."
The database contains paystub information that dates back for years and other personal information, including an employee's health insurance information and the details about unemployment claims, past or present.
Who gives Equifax this information? Sullivan writes that "thousands of human resource departments around the country" provide the records that make up "The Work Number" database that now contains 190 million employment records.
That covers about one-third of the adult population in the United States.
Robert Mather of Pre-Employ.com tells NBC, "It's the biggest privacy breach in our time, and it’s legal and no one knows it’s going on ... It's like a secret CIA."
With all of the social sharing going on these days, it's not shocking to hear that personal information is readily available to anyone.
However, most people don't post their salary, healthcare or unemployment information on Facebook or Twitter unless they are complaining about their lack of coverage or their search for employment.
This highly personal information given to Equifax by employers nationwide is not about to stop. "The Work Number" database is growing, with Equifax stating that it adds 12 million records annually.
Not only do debt collectors and financial service industries pay Equifax to get your salary information, many companies, government agencies like the Department of Defense, and schools sell their employee data to Equifax.
In an email to NBC News, Equifax confirmed that it does indeed share "employment data," but it is in compliance with the Fair Credit Reporting Act guidelines.
The email goes on to say that a "consumer grants verifiers (creditors) and their assigned debt collectors the right to verify employment should the consumer default on their account."
Read the entire report about Equifax selling your salary records here on NBC.com.
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