Everyone should be very familiar with their credit score or at the very least what it represents since it affects your life experiences, like renting an apartment, buying a car, and even getting a cell phone plan as it relates to your creditworthiness. But now it’s been uncovered by The New York Times that you have a secret consumer score too.
Companies create this secret score based off your activity through Airbnb messages, food orders, logins, various device activity, and more to determine if you are trustworthy and if you could potentially be a big spender.
The better your score, the better companies will treat you.
How do they get this activity?
Major companies like Airbnb, Yelp, and OKCupid buy the activity from companies that are collecting this massive amount of data. Now 5 companies are offering to provide reports if you directly request them. Most will require you to send in a copy of your driver’s license photo to verify your identity though.
It can be unsettling to get a 400 page report back (what the NY Times writer received) detailing all your food delivery orders tracing back 3 years ago or the issues you might’ve had with your Airbnb host. But the more you know about what companies have on you, the more you’re not left in the dark.
How to request your data
- Sift determines consumer trustworthiness. Request by emailing to [email protected]
- Zeta Global determines who the big spenders are. You can request via their online form.
- Retail Equation helps companies decide whether to accept or reject product returns based on your history. Request by emailing to [email protected]
- Riskified develops fraud scores and you can request by emailing to [email protected]
- Kustomer provides insight into your past brand experiences and current sentiment. You can request a report by emailing [email protected]
The California Consumer Privacy Act
It’s due to the passed CCPA in California that will go into effect in 2020 that these companies are making data collection practices more accessible.
This law allows Californians to request what data companies hold on them. It’s similar to Europe’s GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation), which lets Europeans see their data and delete it if they wish to.
Since California has passed this law, these pro-active data collection companies, like Sift, decided to make the data available to everyone regardless if you live in California or not.
I’ve requested my own report for Sift and will update again when I receive it. I’m both fascinated and horrified as to what it’ll uncover!
Will you be requesting your data reports to find out your secret consumer score?
If you’re uncomfortable with providing more personal information to verify your identity, at least keep track of your credit score. Free services like Experian Boost™ can instantly improve your score if you have positive payment history to utility companies.
