Equifax says it's Un-American to be required to provide free credit reports to consumers

Mike at Techdirt has some pretty strong things to say about comments from Equifax's CEO, reported in Wired.

Techdirt:Equifax Says It's Un-American For People To Know What Equifax Knows About Them "

It's tough to figure out where to start on the various comments from Equifax boss Thomas Chapman, who claims that the new law requiring the big credit companies to let people see what data has been collected on them for free at least once a year "unconstitutional and un-American." His argument is that it "cuts into the profits" of his company. First of all, cutting into someone's profits isn't unconstitutional or un-American by itself. Second, they're not asking him to "give away" some random product, but to let anyone check the info that his company has collected on that person to make sure it's accurate. ... The article also gets amusing towards the end where Chapman puts his foot in his mouth big-time by basically saying they've had a bunch of data breaches which haven't been announced, and then trying to pretend he never admitted that, first by saying: "I don't think you've seen our name in the news," then by refusing to answer more pointed questions on the issue with: "I'm not going to go there. I'm not going to answer that question. We have been notifying and engaging in communication with customers, consumers, for a long time. We're known for that. We're known for our stand on privacy." Yup. Your stand on privacy is apparently that you don't believe in anyone's ability to check on their own private data to make sure it's accurate -- unless they first pay you."