Today's Toronto Star has an article about social insurance numbers and credit reports: "TheStar.com - SINs not needed to get a credit rating check". It is a followup to a previous article about a promotion to get your credit report online, free. The service required the customer to enter their SIN and includes some discussion about privacy and SINs.
Anybody who is interested in the use of social insurance numbers and Canadian privacy law may also want to read the following articles that touch on the topic:
- Focus on Privacy: New Privacy Law Places Limits on SIN
- PIPEDA and Credit Grantors (pdf of a powerpoint presentation)
The Office of the Privacy Commissioner also has a brand new "fact sheet" on the social insurance numbers: "Best Practices for the Use of Social Insurance Numbers in the Private Sector."
So you can get your rating just with your name?
ReplyDeleteJust a name isn't enough, because the purpose of the SIN was to make sure the credit grantor is getting the right credit file. Since there are a number of duplicates if you were to use the name only, that woudln't be sufficient. I understand that name, address, date of birth are likely sufficient to get a credit check without the use of the SIN.
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