We notify the credit bureaus to put an alert on your credit file and keep it there over the course of your membership. This requires lenders to verify your identity before they do anything which could negatively affect your good standing.
The other important feature is the ability to help consumers lock their credit reports. This is the ultimate form of identity protection.
It tells credit bureaus that they cannot sell your data without first getting permission. We're not saying that consumers should own this data or that they should be able to put credit bureaus out of business, but bureaus should not sell data until you've given permission.
If we can stop those sales, we will have stopped identity theft as we know it.
From a legislative perspective it's an interesting time now because the question is whether the federal law will give consumers more power to protect their data or less power to protect their data.
